I've gone where now?
by Mcat9905
Summary: Another story where someone crosses over the gate, but for once, it's NOT A GIRL! Meet Jack Ryenn, and prepare for...whatever this story turns into. Rated T for mild language.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello fellow fanfictioners. It's been a while… This has been brooding on my mind for… a few weeks now. I've recently gotten into the anime part of the fanfiction world, and something struck me: in all the "normal people travel to FMA world" fanfics I've read, not **_**one **_**of them has been about a boy. It's always a girl, and there's usually some romantic hinting/suggested/grotesquely obvious inclinations later on. And I thought: why? It was that bit of information which leads to this story: about a BOY who ends up in the world of our favorite Fullmetal Pipsqueak. There might be a girl popping in later, but the character I have planned is so ambiguous thus far it could go either way.**

**Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. Unless you personally know me and have already read this, in which case… shut your trap.**

.oOo.

_Beep _

_Beep_

_Beep_

_Beep_

_Bee—_

My hand flung out and slapped the offensive noise lazily, shutting off the alarm on my clock. Grumbling, I rolled over and glared at the glowing blue numbers.

_8:04_

I frowned at the clock. Hadn't I set it to 7 last night? Whatever, too late to fix it now. I'd just have to be late for school… again. It wasn't exactly the first time I had overslept, and it certainly wasn't going to be the last. Mr. Eckart, my homeroom teacher, had warned me that I would have detention the next time I was late for school. It didn't matter anyway, though. I would always be late, and he would always give me that disapproving "I'm going to lower my head to you and glare to make you feel chagrined" look that all adults seemed to have mastered.

I sighed, kicking my disheveled sheets off of the remainder of my bed as I rose to get ready. Upon standing, I caught sight of myself in the mirror on the wall. I smirked. _Mirror mirror on the wall, who is good at rhyming?_

_Not you. _My reflection seemed to say. _Now put a shirt on, it's against the dress code to show up half naked._

An old T-shirt lay on the floor, half crumpled, half worn. I sniffed the pits passively. _Good enough for me. _Grabbing some deodorant, I made my way to the bathroom and made sure I was... more or less presentable. After splashing water in my face to fully wake myself up, I glanced at my reflection again.

Apparently, my eyes were unnatural, making me appear "supernatural" to the superstitious freaks at school. I didn't see it. They were _blue. _Boring old light blue. A lot of people have blue eyes, and mine were just as ordinary as any of theirs. But no, they seemed to be magnets for every girl with an eye for eyes in the entire damn word. They always came up and wanted to talk to me, but they either couldn't look me in the eye because they too busy blushing or they just kept staring at my eyes and eventually stopped talking. It was freaking annoying. And they were never my type of girl, either, just more hopeless chicks with hopeless dreams of becoming big. The girls I had _my _eyes on were always either taken or deterred by my wonderful charming and totally badass personality. Alas, 'tis the life I live.

Grabbing my bag and some food from the fridge, I began mozying along to school. I'd already missed the bus, and my parents had gone to work, so I had to fend for myself against the cold, harsh, biting wind that—whatever. It was cold. I had to walk to school. Hooray for me.

I crossed street after street, making my way towards the place where I could "make a future for myself". That was the biggest bull I'd ever heard. School was nothing if you didn't want to go to college. I could get just as good a job and future by doing what I always did: what I wanted. It's not like I'm selfish or lazy or anything, but throughout my time I'd found that doing things my way always ended up making me happier. So I just stuck with it.

I was almost at the school now, its bleak walls oppressing my very soul. How anyone could construct a building of such boring architecture was far beyond m—

_SCREECH!_

Suddenly I was in the air, sailing toward the asphalt. How had I gotten in the air? I was floating for a pretty long time, too. Trying to twist my body so as to see just _what the hell _was going on, I realized that I was moving in slow motion. Wonderful. Here I was, just crossing the street, minding my own business, when somebody just had to—

Oh….

I'd been hit by a car.

Time seemed to speed up once I figured out my dilemma, and I hit the ground with a sickening squelch, a splat, and a crunch. Something, if not a lot of somethings, were definitely broken. I tried to move my head and examine my predicament further, but it was stuck solid, unmoving. _Perfect. _Now if I even managed to survive, I would probably live paralyzed forever.

_Sorry Mr. Eckart, I won't be coming to class today. Got hit by a car. Won't be doing much… of… anything… any….more….._

Slowly, I lost sight of even the sky above me, and my world turned black.

.oOo.

And then the world turned white, like some magic light switch in my brain had been flipped on.

I glanced around, trying to take in what had happened. I was late for school, I crossed the street, and… I died.

So this is the afterlife huh? Rather boring, if you ask me.

"Not quite the afterlife, but you're close enough where it doesn't really matter" a disembodied collage of voices said, coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Confused, I turned around, and saw… something.

The first thing I noticed was that I wasn't in a room, just white. Or, if I was in a room, the walls went on so far that I couldn't see the end. In front of me were two doors. The door on the left was beautifully carved out of mahogany, depicting warm scenes of joys come and gone. It was pretty inviting, and I almost seemed attracted to it. The door on the right was a bit more ominous, carved out of stone, there was what looked like an upside-down tree carved into its face, with a lot of circles and symbols and words that I didn't understand. Both doors were truly works of art.

Then I glanced between them, and saw what had spoken to me.

It was in the figure of a person, no definition of either gender, and it was completely white and featureless, just like the rest of the room. The only thing separating it's whiteness from the whiteness of the room was a thin black… shadowy outline thing surrounding it. Then it grinned, and I realized that it wasn't completely featureless. It had a really freaking _huge _mouth, though…

"Welcome, Jack. I see you're doing well" it said, mouth moving, but the voices still coming from everywhere. Creepy bastard.

"Yeah, I guess you could call 'not dead yet' well. Who are you again?" I asked, my voice sadly just coming from me. No cool effect for the newbie.

The thing grinned at me. "They call me by many names. I am the Truth. I am God. I am the world. I am one. I am all. And I am you."

I stared at… I guess it's a him now. I stared at him, confused, but not entirely surprised. This was the almost afterlife, anything was possible. "…Right. So anyways, Truth, I was wondering what I'm doing here and all. If I'm about to die, what is it I'm here for?" My voice sounded surprisingly calm, all things considered. I mean, I was practically _dead. _Should I have sounded a little more scared?

Truth just kept on grinning at me. "The process of death is a rather amusing one. Normally, when people die, they move on to the afterlife. Some people refer to it as Heaven, others Hell, some even call it Limbo. Whatever you want to call it, it's right through those gates" he gestured to the mahogany door on the left. Then he frowned. "If you had died a normal death, you would be passing through those doors right now. Unfortunately, you weren't supposed to come here yet. You died too soon. Now that you're here, I have to give you something in return for the toll you've paid."

This was seriously weird. "What toll? I don't have any cash on me…"

"That's easy, you gave me a good 50 years of your life."

I paused. 50 years? I was only gonna make it up to… 64 years old? There go my dreams of breaking the world record for "oldest bastard ever."

"So I've paid my toll," I said, waiting for the punch line. "What are you gonna give me in return?"

Truth's grin was back in place. "A choice."

The words echoed more than usual. "A… choice? I give you the next 50 years of my totally awesome life, and all you can offer me is a choice?"

Truth tilted his head. "Yes, that's the idea. Equivalent exchange, and all that. It's the one rule for which there is no loophole."

"How is that equivalent?"

"Most people just get ferried off into the eternity of the afterlife. You get the option for something else" he said, his blank face almost eyeing me. "You can chose the door to the left, and you'll live for eternity, never aging, never dying, see all those people you've lost over the years. Everyone you've ever known is beyond those doors. Or, you can chose something more exciting, and live life on the wild side—the afterlife, anyways. Through those other doors" he gestured to the stone beside him "lies another chance at life. There will be danger, adventure, challenges, and thrills beyond your wildest dreams. Another chance to take on the world." His grin turned evil "so long as you survive, that is. This door is another life, the same you elsewhere. If you screw up here, you're done. You won't be heading through those doors, either. You'll go somewhere terrible, where you'll regret every bad decision you've ever made for the rest of eternity."

"Sounds like a real treat. Where's the choice in this?"

"Should you succeed in this new world, you will get something amazing." My eyes widened, my interest peaked. "Anything you want, it can be yours. Absolutely. Anything." His words stopped echoing for those last two words.

_Absolutely anything. _ That was something I could work with.

"So I get to choose between eternal happiness and my greatest desire?" I inquired, leaning forward with anticipation.

"After you pass all the challenges, yes." Truth looked excited now, too. As if even he wasn't expecting me to jump for his offer so readily.

"No way in Hell."

His smile froze. If he could've blinked, I think he would have. "What was that?"

I waved my hand nonchalantly. "Your offer seems great, but it doesn't seem equivalent. Throw something else in, and you might have yourself a deal. Until then…" I began to turn around, hoping my white little friend wouldn't call my bluff.

Truth appeared in front of me instantly, readying his rebuttal. "You get one freebie."

A smile began to form on my face. "Define freebie."

"One extra life. You die once, you can continue your journey where you left off. You die twice, you're done for. End of story." Truth pushed forcefully. "That is my final offer. Now chose your door, Jack."

I mirrored his earlier grin. "Pleasure doing business with you."

With that, I walked up to the stone doors and opened them.

.oOo.

Truth watched Jack be deconstructed by the tiny terrors, grinning all the way. Once he was gone, he said to no one in particular "foolish mortal. What price will you pay to use that 'freebie,' I wonder…"

He laughed, the sound echoing back to his lonely ears.

This was going to be fun.

**A/N: So here it is: chapter 1! I'm probably not gonna update regularly, I've gotta figure out how to piece the story together first. I have the general ideas for the story down, and a couple of scenes, but I still need to figure out how to get from point A to point B successfully. **

**Now, many of you know about the shooting that happened in Connecticut earlier today (December 14, 2012). I just want to remind you all about the innocent lives that were lost there. Say a prayer, post something on facebook, but let people know that you care. I'm almost ashamed to say it, but that massacre helped a lot with the ideas for this first chapter. Please, just think about them, and never forget those kids.**

**See you later!**


	2. Chapter 2

Colonel Roy Mustang considered himself to be a generally calm man. He had survived the civil war in Ishval, Major Alex Louis Armstrong's numerous attempts to molest him, and Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye's trigger happy finger. If anything, he thought himself to be prepared for anything.

Except for the random child in his office.

Mustang had been crawling through the mountain of paperwork on his desk (at gunpoint) when… _something _appeared on the floor of his office.

It had started out as a slit in the floor, then it slowly twisted open to become a massive grey eye. It _then _decided to grow about three dozen little black arms, which kindly deposited and assembled the body of a young man onto his carpet, before finally shrinking back into the nothingness that had been there but a few moments earlier. If anything, the display was uncalled for.

It took one moment for Hawkeye to redirect here gun, two moments for the rest of the crew to do the same, and three moments for the lonesome figure to be completely surrounded by all six members of the military.

"Sir?" Hawkeye asked, waiting for orders concerning what to do about the person sprawled before them.

Roy contemplated for a moment. "Somebody cuff him to the couch. We'll hear what he has to say for himself when he comes to."

"Yes sir!" his subordinates replied. While they lifted the prone boy to the chair, Roy Mustang began to wonder what was going on. It almost appeared to be alchemy, but if it was, it was the strangest alchemy he had ever seen. He also hadn't seen a transmutation circle. Sighing, he picked up the phone, wondering how many calls he would have to make before he finally got in contact with the only runt he knew who could transmute without using a circle.

It was going to be a long morning…

.oOo.

After I opened the big stone doors, the scariest things _ever _started grabbing me. They were little black hands from Hell, and they just started to drag me through the door that I would've voluntarily gone through anyway. I was beginning to regret that decision, though. I could almost hear the grin on Truth's face as I left his little white wonderland.

While I was inside the… gateway, I guess, something weird went on inside my head. I saw at least 6 million different images of things that made all of 0 sense to me and didn't seem to be connected at all. There were robot people and various locations ranging from the desert to the mountains to a cute little house in the middle of nowhere, plus some seriously wicked pentagrams and other circle-y diagrams. I also heard some weird advice. Little voices kept whispering at me to "find Edward Elric. Save them. Find Edward Elric. Save them. Find Edward Elric…" You get the idea. It was mind boggling and terrifying, but I knew I had some task to do. And when I was done… The things I would do… It was thrilling.

When I finally left the black void of information, I found myself… handcuffed to the arm of a chair. Not the most pleasant experience, in case you've never been cuffed to a chair before. Well, it was more of a sofa, but still.

"Sir, he's awake." A voice to my right said. It was a female voice, kinda hard, but not particularly pissed off. More of a serious 'I'm going to order you around without actually ordering you around' voice. I glanced over and saw… wow.

She had blonde hair and brown eyes, a rather thrilling combination, I might add. Her posture was erect, and she had an expression that said 'I'm not taking any bull from anybody.' The royal blue outfit she wore was wicked fancy, and if it weren't for the gun she was aiming at my face, I would've shot her a winning smile. Imposing chicks are hot.

"Thank you for that, Lieutenant, I am aware." A new voice said. So she was a lieutenant? That meant she had some authority. Lucky her. I glanced toward the new person.

He had short black hair and a slight scowl, with a weird twinkle in his eyes. I almost groaned when I recognized that look. This man was a player.

"Please state your name and business in my office" he ordered firmly. I wonder if he ordered everybody he just met, or if I was just that special.

"Why should I?" I asked, with an attempt at innocence. "Is it important that you know?"

The man's scowl deepened. "Of course it's important!" he snapped at me. "You appeared out of thin air into a secure military area. Again, state your name and business here."

I sighed. This man was a piece of work. "Jack Ryenn. I'm looking for one 'Edward Elric.' Do you know where I can find him?"

His gaze darkened. "Why are you looking for him?"

"That's classified."

"Tell me anyway."

"Nope."

"Why not?"

" 'Cause I don't feel like it."

The silence in the room after my rather blunt answer was entertaining, to say the least.

Mr. Bossy glared at me. "And what do you feel like telling me?"

I smiled my signature 'I've got something evil planned' smile and responded. "I'm on a mission directly from those above you. Please direct me to Edward Elric."

The man almost looked like he wanted me to spontaneously combust before his eyes. "And whose orders are those, exactly?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Do you really expect me to answer that?"

"Yes."

"Sucks to be you."

He sighed, obviously irked beyond belief. "Fullmetal is on his way here now. You'll just have to wait here until he arrives."

I smiled, settling back into the couch. It would be easy to find Elric if he came right to me. That was half of my mission done. Soon I would just have to pass many trying challenges and "save them", then I would have absolutely anything I wanted.

Miss Lieutenant frowned at me. "You have orders from above us. Does that make you a member of the military?"

"Maybe."

"It's a yes or no question."

I glanced at her. "So?"

The blonde just shook her head. Then she redirected her attention and frowned. "Sir, do I need to help you more, or will that mound of paper disappear before my very eyes?"

The man seemed to pale a bit. "That's okay, Lieutenant, I can handle this."

"Just making sure, Sir."

I snickered. These two might be fun to watch for a while.

.oOo.

Edward Elric was glaring at the offensive _thing _in front of him.

"So we meet again, you little bastard."

The glass of milk said nothing in reply, as usual.

"You should drink you milk, brother." Alphonse said, sitting next to him at the kitchen table. "It could make you taller."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT NOT EVEN A GLASS OF MI—" Ed was cut off by a wrench to the face, thrown by one Winry Rockbell.

"You're not leaving that table until the milk is gone!" She yelled, ready to force it down his throat should push come to shove.

"No way in Hell."

"Brothe—" the phone rang, leaving Ed to glare at his milk and Al to stare at him.

Winry returned a moment later, the cord of the phone pulled around the corner. "You've got an urgent summons to Central from Colonel Mustang."

"What's that bastard want now?"

A muffle voice came from the telephone.

"Apparently, some kid appeared in his office via transmutation. He didn't use a circle, and he isn't waking up." She said, clearly worried for the child in question.

"Tell him we'll leave on the next train." Alphonse said before Ed could make an annoyed retort.

Winry smiled. "And after the milk is gone."

There was a pregnant pause, then Ed clapped his hands and slammed them on the table, transmuting the glass of liquid into the table. "All gone. See ya, Winry!"

He raced up and out the door, barely dodging the wrench that came flying his way. Alphonse just sighed, thanked her for hosting them, and then followed after his older brother.

If only he would drink his milk…

.oOo.

I shifted uncomfortably, the cuffs digging into my wrists. It had been several _hours, _and nothing had changed. Mr. In Charge was still working his way through a rather impressive pile of paperwork, Miss Lieutenant was working through a significantly smaller pile of paperwork, and the other four guys were _also _slowly working through mini mountains of paperwork.

I sighed. Is that all people do here?

"So when do you think he'll be here?" I inquired, my boredom apparent in the tone of my voice.

The blonde lieutenant glanced in my direction. "They will be here as soon as the train arrives."

I frowned. 'They?' I thought I had only requested Edward…

The player seemed to gain an interest in our conversation. "You mean you don't _know?" _He sounded like an overdramatic actor. There was a vocab word for that…

"Know what?"

Lieutenant lady narrowed her eyes. "That the Elric brothers _always _travel together. It's been their thing for years."

Huh, brothers. Cool. "Ooh, I see. And how many brothers are there, again?"

Mr. In Charge paused before asking, "How can you be looking specifically for Fullmetal, yet not know he has a younger brother?"

"Uuhm, well you see—"

The door was kicked open by one small black and red boot. Following the boot was one little kid wearing a huge red trench coat and an entirely black outfit, plus one hulking 7 foot tall suit of armor. The scene would have been rather comical, if it weren't for the fact that the little runt looked like he would kill us with his laser eyes.

"Where's the kid, you bastard, I've got things to do!" the pipsqueak yelled. Wow, those lungs were impressive…

The aforementioned bastard smiled wryly. "Ah, there you are, Fullmetal. I couldn't see you behind all this paperwork."

The kid went from looking pissed to looking SERIOUSLY EFFING PISSED. "WHO'RE YOU CALLING A RUNT SO SMALL HE CAN'T EVE—"

His voice was cut off as the larger of the brothers covered his mouth. "Sorry, sir, it was a long train ride. Now please, where is the person you mentioned?"

I nodded my head. " 'Sup?"

The runt stopped struggling long enough to glance at me in mistrust. "That him?" He asked, his eyes boring into my very soul. _Gasp!_

"Yeah, this is the brat who caused you to come running to your favorite superior officer." The player answered. "Meet Jack Ryenn. Jack, these are the Elric brothers."

I rolled my eyes. "Really? Whatever gave that away?"

The guy in the armor walked over to me. "Nice to meet you, Jack. I'm Alphonse Elric, and this is my older brother, Edward." He said, extending a hand for me to shake.

Huh, so the taller brother was the younger one? "Cool, it's uh, great to meet you too, Alphonse. I would shake your hand, but…" I trailed off, glancing at the cuffs on my wrists. "Actually, could somebody do something about these things? I've been wearing them forever, and I'm pretty sure I've lost all the feeling in my hands."

Edward glared at the guy behind the desk. "You cuffed his hands _together, _knowing full well that the kid could transmute without a circle? How stupid have you gotten, Mustang?"

Mr. In Charge, now known as Mustang, narrowed his eyes. "He was unconscious at the time. If they were bothering him that much, he should've at least _tried _to transmute them away." He glanced at me. "Why didn't you?"

"Uuh, what the hells a 'transmute'?"

Everyone in the room stopped and stared. "You don't know that, either?" The only female in the room questioned. I frowned. This was a parallel world, a chance at another life. Of course some things would be different, but it would've been nice if 'God' had told me about some of the key stuff _beforehand._

"No, I don't." I said, my voice sounding exasperated. "Enlighten me."

Edward sat down, glaring at me. "You came here using a transmutation, without a circle, I might add, and you don't know how you got here?" He looked seriously miffed. "Just what the hell are you doing here, anyways?"

I shrugged nonchalantly. "Looking for you. Saving 'them'." I frowned, yet _again. _"Who am I supposed to be saving? Any of you guys know some group who needs to be saved?" I asked the general crowd in the room.

The lady looked at me funny again. "No one in particular comes to mind…"

"Oh, then it looks like I'll just be saving everybody." I grinned. "Hey guys! I'm your new savior! Nice to meet you all!"

"Savior…" Mustang looked at me like I was a little less than sane. "Right… who sent you again?"

"I don't care who sent the kid! I just want to know why he's looking for—"

"The creepy white bastard."

Edward froze mid rant, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "_Who sent you?"_

I rolled my eyes. "I just said that. The creepy white bastard. Called himself 'God' , the truth, and like 5 other things."

Edward looked like someone had mixed rage, fear, and suspicion all in one face. "And he told you to look for me?"

"Something like that, yeah. I'm supposed to 'find Edward Elric' and 'save them'. I believe we've been through this already?"

Mustang looked thoughtful. "Truth… Fullmetal, isn't that—"

"Yeah." Edward cut him off. "Yeah, it is."

I glanced around the room at the faces that suddenly looked a mixture of sad, angry, and confused. Or blank, in the case of Alphonse.

Was it something I said?

**A/N: Hello there! I wasn't expecting to be inspired for this one so quickly, but here I am! I'm going to try to update this thing every weekend (like every other fanfic writer out there) but I've never been very good at keeping to my deadlines, so… we shall see.**

**This one was a bit longer than the last one, more dialogue. I hope I got everything pretty close to what's going on. I think I'll be following brotherhood for this story (which means I'll be rewatching all those…), though there will definitely be elements of MWAHAHA and NYEHEHEH coming from me every now and again.**

**Thank you to my reviewers, especially for actually REVIEWING, and not just being all "good story" or "I like it, keep going". You guys are amazing!**

**Once again, not sure exactly where this thing is headed, or even what Jack's crazy plan at the end will be, but I've got time, so I'm not worried. See you all next week! (hopefully)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yo. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas. I was considering putting up a Christmas special chapter, but then I realized that all my ideas would fit further along in the story, and I REALLY didn't want to write like 10 chapters just for 1 holiday, so…. Yeah. **

**I've recently discovered that with the amount of fanfiction reading most people do, after a week, the stories get all jumbled together, so I'll be adding a quick recap to the beginning of every chapter from now until I get sick of it. **

**Recap: Jack Ryenn was walking to school when he got hit by a bus. He was transported to the portal of Truth, where he was given the choice to pass on or do some challenge thing for a big reward. He chose the reward. He popped out into Mustang's office (idk why yet. I'll figure it out later) where he was cuffed to a couch. Then Ed and Al showed up, and Jack started telling his story (more or less) and now he's wondering just what he said wrong.**

.oOo.

Emerald eyes stared at the world below in curiosity.

"Doesn't look like he's doing so hot. Are you sure I shouldn't go help him out?" A girl asked the white figure beside her. She wore a plain dress and had generally plain features. The only remotely interesting thing about her was her reddish hair and vibrant green eyes.

The Truth turned his head towards her in acknowledgement, but didn't respond.

The girl shrugged. "I'm just saying. You sent him there, but it doesn't look like he's very competent at making people trust him. If anything, he's doing the exact opposite."

"Sending you to assist won't solve that problem." Truth responded, his many voices sounding bored already. "One slightly crazy person from another dimension is bad enough, but add another one and they'll just end up offing the two of you. And then I'd be back to square one."

The girl sighed and stood up, a bracelet jingling with each step. "Suit yourself. We should at least send him a hint, though." She pulled an Ipod out of her pocket and began scrolling through various songs.

Truth merely shook his head, then glanced down at the suit of armor below him. "Hmmm…"

He grinned his signature smile. One little nudge in the right direction could make things more interesting.

.oOo.

My eyes wandered from face to face. Ed looked seriously pissed, his fists were clenched and trembling by his sides. Mustang and the Lieutenant were either sad or worried, and the rest of the guys appeared to be confused. Maybe they didn't know as much as everybody else about Truth.

Speaking of which, what was with that guy? I mentioned him, and suddenly the tense-ometer in the room skyrocketed. I mean, he was creepy, but we wasn't _this _bad…

"So…" I started.

Ed's head shot back up. "What did he take?"

…_huh?_

"What did he take from you!?" Ed was shouting at me now, and he started invading my personal space.

I gave him my best 'wtf' face. "He didn't take something from…" Then my eyes widened. "OH no, this was him paying me back. He was given something of mine, and he had to pay me back compensation. Equivalence and all that jazz."

Edward still wasn't letting up, though. "Then what of yours was he given? And what did you get in return? How is any of this equivalent?!"

I returned his harsh gaze. "I can't tell you everything. It's classifi-" I happened to glance over his shoulder at the door. "Who let the cat in?"

Ed went from glaring at me to growling at his brother. "_Alphonse…"_

If Alphonse could have paled he would have. "No brother, it wasn't me this time! It's not even raining outside!" He was shaking his head and hands like his life depended on it. I raised an eyebrow. He was wearing armor, what could Edward possibly do?

Then the cat, a little orange thing, decided to waltz over to me. Ed was glaring daggers at it, and Al just looked torn between wanting to hug the thing and wanting to drag it outside to save his behind. The cat, oblivious to everything, hopped up onto the sofa.

At this point everyone else in the room practically jumped up to grab the cat and dispose of it. Apparently, cats aren't welcome in military offices either.

And then, the little orange menace did something that either saved my ass or signed my death warrant.

It jumped on my head

And fell asleep.

.oOo

Alphonse watched the adorable creature in shock. He certainly hadn't let it in, but that didn't mean anybody would believe him about that.

As he observed, the little ginger hopped from the floor to the couch, and the couch to Jack's head. His decision had been made. "That settles it." He said softly, his voice echoing through his empty armor. "We'll bring them with us and discuss everything later. C'mon Brother."

Ed didn't look pleased with these circumstances at all. "No way!" He yelled, causing a large shushing from everyone in the room. "There's no way we're just bringing him and his cat-"

"Not my cat." Jack muttered.

"Who cares? There is NO WAY we are just dropping this and letting him and the cat follow us around.

We still don't know anything about him, and I'm not letting one measly feline decide this for us." Ed was the picture of whispered fury. "And don't even _try _to use this as an excuse to keep the damn thing."

Al's armor (sorta) pouted. "I'm not asking to keep her, I just want to get going and follow our next lead. We're wasting time here arguing over Jack, and besides, cats have an excellent taste in character, and this one immediately fell asleep on his head!"

"Here here" Jack mumbled his approval.

Ed glared at Jack, who in turn lightly shrugged and said "I don't particularly care one way or the other, I just need to go save the world, and the sooner I get out of here, the sooner I can do that and get out of your" he frowned "long golden hair."

"You got a problem with my hair?"

"No no, it's very macho."

Mustang sighed, holding his nose. "Just take the kid and is pet and get out, Fullmetal. Hawkeye, his arms."

"Yes sir."

At this Ed's face changed from one of anger to one of evil teasing. "Don't tell me Mustang. Are you _allergic to cats?" _

Roy coughed nonchalantly and mumbled "no way in Hell, runt. Now get out."

Grinning at his new discovery and grumbling about his new companion, Edward lead the way out of Colonel Bastard's office, with Al following and Jack still somehow managing to balance the sleeping cat on his head.

.oOo.

After buying tickets and settling down on the train, conversation started to pick up again.

"So where are we headed?" I asked innocently, the cat _still _balanced on my head.

The elder Elric continued to glare at and pointedly ignore me, while Alphonse responded "We're going to Liore. We'd heard there was a priest there working miracles and wanted to check it out."

I nodded. Miracle man. Maybe he had some connection to Truth's quest, considering he was 'God'. "Cool, cool. So what are we gonna name this little sucker?" I asked, motioning towards my head.

Edward immediately snapped back to attention. "Oh no, we are _not _naming the thing! Once you name it, you have an attachment to it, and we don't have the means to take care of it forever."

Al looked positively depressed at the thought, having finally almost convinced his brother to let him keep a cat. An evil thought occurred to me. Picking up my furry friend, I lifted him above me in a very Lion King-esque fashion. "This. Is. SPARTA!" I called into the slowly filling train.

The brothers merely looked confused. "Wha…? And wait, didn't I just say no naming!"

I grinned. "It's alright. I named him Sparta, so he should be strong and all powerful and not need any real maintenance."

"Her." Alphonse corrected.

I frowned. "How can you tell?"

Edward groaned. "He has a massive affinity for everything and anything feline. Don't ask."

I gave Al an odd look, and then merely shrugged while a yawn escaped me. "Whatever. Well, I'm gonna make like a cat and nap. If you get off the train without me, I'll…" I frowned. What could I do to them? "I'll make you regret it for the rest of your miserable lives." There we go. Always a safe bet.

Sighing and rolling over, I fell into my first real slumber of the day, Sparta cuddled close beside me.

**Well there we have it. Before I get any weird comments, I'd like to say that I had written myself into a bit of a corner for this chapter, and it was my friend who helped me out with this whole cat business. This friend has a strange obsession with cats that sleep in peoples' hair. I don't know why.**

**This chapter was a little shorter than the other ones, but they'll probably get longer from here, cuz I'm gonna try and fit in one episode/chapter. We'll see how that works out. Laters!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry this is a week late, I had a competition last weekend and was busy practicing/going, so there was little time. To make up for it, I shall (attempt) to post chapter 5 tomorrow. Enjoy! **

**Recap: Jack Ryenn… Hit by a car/bus/got run over… choice… Mustang's office… Kitten named Sparta… on their way to Liore with the Elric brothers. Oh, and there was that random chick with truth. They're riding the train now!**

.oOo.

The Fullmetal Alchemist stared at the boy as he leaned back on the chair and promptly fell asleep, the damn cat curling up on his lap. He _could not _believe he had gotten stuck with this kid and his _cat _for who knows how long. It was bad enough that he had the Colonel breathing down his neck, now he had a little tagalong to deal with as well. How were they ever going to get their bodies back with the extra baggage?

Edward glanced at his younger brother. "How hard will it be to ditch this guy?"

Alphonse glared back. "We are not just getting rid of him. Colonel Mustang sought us out after Jack appeared in his office, and he left us in charge of him."

"Technically—"

"Technically nothing, you know as well as I do that even if that wasn't his direct order, that was definitely what he meant. Jack showed up in the middle of his office by some form of alchemy, and now he's here with us. Do you really think the Colonel would just leave him unguarded after that?" Alphonse crossed his arms. "Besides, Sparta likes him, and that's enough for me."

Ed looked incredulous. "You and your damn cats! Explain to me why that stupid creature liking him makes everything OK with you. And while you're at it, explain just when you let the cat in!"

Alphonse hardened. "Cats are not stupid, and they have an excellent choice in character. They don't go waltzing up to just anybody and their animal instincts are way better than ours. And for once, I _didn't _let Sparta in, she walked through the door of her own accord. If I had grabbed her, she would've been in my armor and you know it!" Al let out a decided huff.

Edward stared at his little brother for a moment, then sighed and rubbed his temples. "You're set on this, aren't you?" The suit nodded in confirmation. "Fine, I'll put up with the kid and his cat, but I still don't trust him. If he falls behind, he gets left behind, and if that cat becomes more trouble than it's worth, we are getting rid of it."

Al brightened immediately. "So we can keep her!"

"I never said that. Ryenn will be taking full responsibility for it, as it likes him the best. _We _have nothing to do with the thing: it's all his now." Edward shifted his position so he could glare out the window and began muttering to himself quietly. Alphonse stilled.

It was going to be a long train ride.

.oOo.

Roy Mustang sat at his desk, reminiscing in the past and otherwise avoiding the ever-present mountain of paperwork on his desk.

"_Alright Fullmetal," he had said. "Before I go trusting you as a member of my team, there's something I need to know." He leaned forward. "How do you perform alchemy without using a transmutation circle?" _

_Edward looked at him apprehensively. "I can't teach you, if that's what you want me to do."_

"_No no, nothing of the sort." Roy shook his head. "I just want to know how it's done."_

_Edward snorted. "Well aren't you bunt." His gaze darkened. "About that… it's just a side-effect."_

_Mustang folded his hands on his desk. "A side-effect from that night?"_

_Fullmetal nodded. "It's just something that happens… once you've seen the Truth." After that, he had turned on his heel and left his commanding officer's office without another word._

Roy had never seen the boy so terrified since.

.oOo.

When I stirred from my peaceful slumber, several hours had passed. The pipsqueak looked miffed that I had woken up before they could leave me behind, and Alphonse was hidden behind his helmet, so I couldn't really tell what he thought. Sparta was still sound asleep on my lap. After grabbing his suitcase, Ed led the way into the hustle and bustle of the town known as Liore.

It was a dry place with not too much going for it. The buildings weren't little huts in the mud, but they weren't New York standard either. The people were dressed modestly and for the climate, even if they were a bit late on the times. Actually, come to think of it, a lot of things seemed old-fashioned here.

They sat down at a small hut to drink, some religious dude preaching on the radio. Seriously, a radio? Edward got some orange juice thing, and I got some water. Alphonse didn't get anything, though I wondered why—he must have been roasting in that armor.

The guy serving us was wiping down a glass when he asked "So… are you guys street performers or something?" His mustache twitched when he spoke.

I started to choke on my beverage. Edward actually spit his out. "Do we look like street performers to you?" he asked, annoyance evident in his tone.

"Well yeah, what else would you be?"

I snorted in laughter. "You come with me sometime, bud, I'll show you what a real street performer looks like." This got a strange look from the Elrics.

"And how would you know what a _real _street performer looks like?" Edward asked, suspicious.

"The obvious answer here would be by walking through various crowded streets until you happen to find one."

The waiter dude chuckled to himself and shook his head, glass still in his hands. "So who's this guy on the radio right now?" Edward asked nonchalantly.

Mustache's eyes widened. "Why that's father Cornello! He's a man of miracles! A direct emissary from the sun god, Leto! He found us when we were in a state of ruin, bringing Letoism with him. The place has really turned around because of his miracles! We now have hope and faith to light our paths."

"So he's basically your savior?" Alphonse asked, Edward casting a knowing evil grin in my direction.

"Well yeah, I suppose you could call him that!"

I frowned slightly. "Aww, and here I thought I was special."

"You are special. We all are, for we are all children of God." A female voice said from behind me. We turned around to see a girl carrying a basket of some fruits. She wore a simple white dress and had midnight hair framed by dark brown bangs. Her violet eyes peered at us kindly. "You look new around here, are you just passing through or have you come to learn the ways of Letoism?"

Edward took control at this point. "We're scientists, we don't want to follow any religion. We would like to see some off your father's 'miracles'" he said the word with a hint of scorn "though."

The girl smiled. She had a pretty smile. "Then it looks like you're in luck! One of Father Cornello's annual miracles is about to occur."

The elder Elric brother grinned. "Sounds good. C'mon, Al." The brothers stood up to leave, but as Alphonse rose, his armored head hit the roof of the bar/shack thing, knocking the radio off of its ledge.

This would have been all fine and dandy, had it not come crashing down right on top of _my head. _Then, after bouncing off of my unwilling cranium, it fell to the ground and shattered into about 40 little pieces.

"Aaauuuugh…" I grumbled while rubbing my sore noggin. "That damn thing is _heavy. _I hope you didn't just give me a concussion…"

Alphonse looked around him almost sheepishly. "Ah! Sorry about that, sir! Here, we'll fix it for you!"

Mustache looked disbelieving. "How? It's smashed to a million pieces!"

"Sure, don't worry about me or anything..." I muttered to myself.

"Just watch and learn, gramps." Edward grinned at the man behind the counter while Alphonse drew a… something on the ground. It looked vaguely familiar, almost like I had seen it… oh! I saw it while I was traveling through the portal of dark scary arms and knowledge! Anyways, he drew a circle and some triangles on the ground, then proceeded to place every last bit of radio into the center.

Then Alphonse stood above the circle and moved his hands in a crossed position, as if some huge invisible box was there, and he was pressing it down. There was a puff of smoke, some lightning, and a weird popping poofing sound. Once the smoke had cleared, a mint condition radio was once again spewing out religious stuff, as if nothing had happened since the day it was removed from its box.

"That's it, I'm hallucinating. Definitely have a concussion." I griped, rubbing my temples in circular motions.

The people around us were all gaping. "You can perform miracles like Father Cornello!" Mustache exclaimed excitedly.

Alphonse shook his head. "It's not miracles. It's alchemy!"

Edward just groaned. "We're wasting time here, c'mon!" And with that, we all left the little bar and followed the pretty girl somewhere, myself still rubbing my head dejectedly.

.oOo.

Ed watched with a calculated gaze at the bald man on the pedestal by the chapel. He wore a clean pressed black outfit with white trimmings and was constantly smiling. The smile _looked_ genuine enough, but it was just a movement of the face, there was no joy behind it. The man took a flower in his hands, pressed them tightly together, and released them in a clear alchemic reaction, displaying a new enormous decorative flowerpiece behind him. "There's no doubt about it" he muttered to himself "that's definitely alchemy."

Al looked at his brother quickly. "But he has no regard for the laws!"

Ed continued to gaze intently at the priest before them. "Exactly. We just have to find out how he's—" Edward spotted a ruby red glint near his left hand and grinned. "Bingo."

"Woah woah woah, hang on a minute here." Jack said, waving his hands near Ed's face. "That was alchemy? I thought alchemy was all 'become immortal' and 'change lead into gold' using the sorcerer's stone. You're telling me that the… magic mumbo jumbo I just saw was alchemy?" Jack shook his head in disbelief. "The people here are so weird."

Edward jumped down from the suitcase he was standing on. "Alchemy is much more than just that. You're the weird one for not knowing anything about it when you can so clearly use it."

"I can… huh?" Jack scrunched his eyebrows. "Never mind, I'll figure it out later. So where to now?"

Edward picked up his suitcase. "We should probably go find Rose."

"That girl who led us here? Already? Her boobs weren't _that _big." Jack gave Edward a knowing look. Alphonse snickered, while his brother turned an interesting shade of pink.

"That's not what I meant! I want to find her because she's our best chance at getting close to that phony priest!" Edward's voice had raised a little.

"Right, and I'm sure her boobs have _nothing _to do with it."

Edward growled. "Just shut up and keep up."

Jack smirked at his victory.

.oOo.

We walked inside the fancy chapel. Instead of the usual cross above the altar, there was another huge statue of that "sun god" Leto. The girl, who had introduced herself earlier as Rose, was praying before the altar. I heard something that sounded suspiciously like "bring him back", but you can never be sure with girls who mumble. Or just girls in general.

Rose stood up and turned, finally noticing we had arrived. She smiled at us brightly. "So, have you changed your minds? Are you actually interested in Letoism?"

Edward put on a sheepish grin. "Yeah, we may have reconsidered it after seeing those awesome miracles." His act was almost convincing me, but I could see the tenseness in his shoulders and the way his hands were fists in his pockets. "Do you think maybe your father could save arrogant scientists' souls such as ours?"

Rose kept on smiling. "Of course he can! Father Cornello can do anything! He can even bring back the dead!"

Edward's smile slipped, and Alphonse stiffened. "No he can't" I said. "Only I'm _that _awesome."

The Elric brothers shot me a glare. "Joking." I said, trying to reassert some semblance of dignified conversation before the shouting broke out. "Now where is this Father Cornello of yours?"

Rose didn't seem to notice the dark atmosphere that had pervaded the room. "Right this way." She smiled again and turned on her heel, headed down a corridor I hadn't noticed earlier. I shrugged at my traveling companions and followed her down into the unknown depths below.

.oOo.

They walked down the hallway, brother arguing with Rose about the prospect of bringing people back from the dead, and telling the old myth of the boy with wings of wax.

"Icarus." Alphonse heard Jack mutter to himself.

"What was that?" Al asked the new member of their goup.

He looked up. "It's the old Greek myth about Daedalus and Icarus in the labyrinth." He frowned to himself. "I didn't know you guys had an Ancient Greece, though."

Alphonse tilted his head. "We don't? What does old grease have to do with the myth?"

Ryenn just shook his head. "Nothing. Nevermind."

They had arrived at a large set of fancy doors. Rose acknowledged the man standing guard as 'Brother Cray.' They followed brother Cray through the double doors into a large stone hall. "Father Cornello is a busy man. You should try to make this quick."

Brother grinned. "Don't worry, we won't take up too much of his time!"

"No, you won't." Cray pulled out a gun and aimed it at my metal forehead, two lackeys separating brother, Jack, and Rose from me with their staffs.

"Brother Cray! What are you doing?" Rose cried out desperately, confusion evident in the tone of her voice.

"These men are heretics, come to destroy our prosperous city!" Cray cried out. "They must be eliminated. It is the will of the sun god, Leto!"

Brother grinned. "Yeah? Well then let's make this _quick!" _he said, flipping the two lackeys over, while I punched Cray in the face, forcing him to drop his gun. Jack looked confused for a moment before he seemed to gather himself and stood in front of Rose protectively. Though what that did, Alphonse couldn't tell. Jack was about as much use as a bottle of ink here.

"I'm so sorry you had to deal with those misguided souls." A voice called out from the shadows as father Cornello stepped out from hiding. "It is most unfortunate."

"Yeah, as soon as I believe that you weren't the one guiding them." Brother called back. "You damn phony priest, conning your devoted followers into thinking that you work miracles, while you really only use second-rate alchemy."

Cornello kept up his smile. "I don't know what you're talking about. What you see is the work of God. There is no alchemy here, especially not without equivalent exchange. Look—" here he clasped his hands together and brought them back apart again with a flash of alchemic light, revealing another Leto statue in miniature form. "—could alchemy produce something from nothing as you see here?"

"Yeah, that's what I didn't really get at first." Brother said, scratching his head as he spoke. "How can you just ignore the laws of equivalent exchange and conservation of matter?"

"Because I already told you, it isn't—"

"And then it hit me." Ed interrupted the priest. "What if you had something that could ampliy alchemic reactions? Something said to make the impossible possible?" His gaze fixated itself on Cornello's left hand. "That ring. It's the Philosopher's Stone, isn't it?"

"What? Damn Brittish terms, don't go confusing me like this!" Jack called from the sidelines. He was ignored.

Cornello frowned. "The ring is just a ring. Nothing more." He redirected his squinty eyes. "Rose dear?"

Rose seemed to brighten. "Yes, Father Cornello?"

"You now see what the heretics accuse me of. They are here sent by the devil to destroy us. They mst be exterminated." Cornello opened a single eye. "I want you to pick up that gun and shoot the Fullmetal Alchemist."

Rose took a startled step back. "You want me to… what? No! Father!"

Cornello stepped forward, raising his hands. "You must do it, child, for it is God's will. You remember what I promised you would happen if you remained faithful?"

Rose shouted "You promised you would bring my fiancé back to life!" She reached down to grab the gun, only to find it missing. She looked around, shocked. Jack was twirling the weapon on his finger teasingly.

"What, this thing? Sorry Gramps, can't let those two be killed. I need them for my personal gain." He stopped twirling the gun for a minute to change its aim. "You, on the other hand, are expendable." He went to pull the trigger, but Rose pushed his arm at the last moment, causing his aim to shift just as the trigger was pulled.

"Alphonse!" Edward yelled, as the helmet of the suit of armor was blown clear off with a distinctive clang.

Rose froze, took a step back, clutched her head and began to scream. "You have done well, child." Cornello spoke above the noise. "Now grab the gun and shoot the other ones as well."

Alphonse sat up. "Haven't you made her do enough already?"

Rose audibly gasped. "But how could you…"

"It's fine, see?" Alphonse stood up and leaned forward a bit, showing the inside of his armor. "No harm done."

The inside of Alphonse's armor was… empty.

.oOo.

I used the moment of distraction from Alphonse's shocking discovery to take another shot at the priest. So what if Alphonse was a talking suit of armor? This world had alchemy and British Sorcerer's Stones, it could have magical suits of armor, too.

Now, I don't claim to be a good shot. In fact, I'd never held a gun in my life before then (aside from Nerf guns, that is). But I will admit that when I managed to actually graze that lying priest in the arm, I was proud of myself.

"Aw yeah! Ryenn for the win!" I called out into the stunned silence. "What, nobody thought that was awesome?" I shook my head. "You guys are so uptight."

Cornello growled and staggered back from the wound. "Fine then. How about you deal with my chimera!" He reached for a lever that I could've sworn wasn't on the wall before and pulled, releasing chains and a growl from the shadows. The thing that walked out was… a mixture of a lot of different things. It started out as a lion, but it had the tail of a dragon or a lizard or something, and muscular bird legs, too. It was freaky. But then again, this was a completely different world I was in.

I shrugged, the said "Hey, Alphonse!" before tossing the gun to him. He caught it without a hitch. "It'll do you more good than it'll do me." I explained as he tilted his head. Then I turned to face Rose, who looked about ready to barf up some of that fruit from earlier. "Are you alright? You're trembling like a leaf."

"He's… he's… empty." She gasped, her gaze focused on whatever fighting was going on behind me. Honestly, I didn't care. If the Elric brothers were really all that, they could probably handle themselves against one little monster.

"Yeah, I noticed." I said as calmingly as I could. "But it's going to be ok, right? Hey, you." I grabbed her by the chin and forced her to redirect her gaze towards me. "Everything is going to be fine. We'll take care of this." She nodded, then looked over my shoulder and let out a strangled gasp. I sighed, turning around. What was it _now? _

Then I saw Edward's arm.

"See Rose?" Cornello cried. "This is what happens to those who trespass on the territory of God! The heretics must be eliminated!" I rolled my eyes. Edward was a robot. Big deal. This priest was a freaking nutcase, though.

I sighed. How were we gonna get out of this mess?

**Hey there again, sorry to cut this short, it's late and my fingers are freezing. I've discovered that going from short chapters to long chapters is a huge pain in the butt, so the rest of this episode will be posted as chapter 5 either tomorrow or some time before next Friday. I haven't written it yet, but it shouldn't be too hard.**

**About that random Mustang scene in the beginning: another friend of mine pointed out to me that Roy doesn't find out about the Truth until the very end, and Al doesn't until some time in the middle. To avoid confusion, I have let him hear the name at some point about 3 years ago. And Mustang is just that badass, so he can just remember important stuff like that when he's reminded of it. So there.**

**Hope to see a few more reviews for this one, but I'm not gonna do that crappy "no more chapters until I get THIS many reviews!" thing. It's stupid and annoying. **

**But I'll ask that you review anyways **** they give me joy and lessen my back pain! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello. I just reread chapter 4 and realized just how many typos there were. Sorry. I'm too lazy to fix it, though, and none of them were so bad that you couldn't figure out what I meant. I also accidentally switched to first person when talking from Al's POV. Twice. Sorry about that, never again will I post a chapter without reading it through at least twice.**

**Recap: We're at Cornello's little fiasco, Jack Ryenn came to this world, nobody knows who he is (yet, haven't planned that far ahead yet) and the only one who trusts him is Al. And maybe Rose. **

.oOo.

They glared at Cornello as he explained the reason Edward was a cyborg and Alphonse was empty. Meanwhile, I was busy thinking about the old myth he had spewed earlier. The one about Icarus, who had been warned by Daedalus not to fly too close to the sea or too close to the sky, for the sun's heat would melt the wax and the sea spray would ruin the glue. However, the moment Icarus got into the sky, he was so overjoyed by the feeling of flying that he flew right down to the sea to feel the water on his face. He then flew up high to see if he could touch the sun. But the glue was ruined, and the heat melted the wax wings. Icarus came crashing down to the sea and perished.

_A metaphor for their own situation. _I thought to myself. _How apt and poetic of you._

Of course, in the midst of all my thinking, the world had still been going on around me. So naturally, it was during this time that Cornello made his cane into a gun-thing that looked _way _too advanced for all the old fashioned stuff they had here.

The priest fired at us, but before he could do any damage, Edward did some magic-alchemy-voodoo whatever and put a nice thick wall between us and him. He then said some cheesy comeback about God just sending him back.

I sighed. I would have to help him with those later. Right now I had to focus on staying alive. Noticing that Cornello had redirected his aim, Alphonse picked Rose up bridal-style and ran, guarding her with his armored back. I quickly snatched the gun I had tossed him earlier and ran after them, Edward following close behind me.

"You can't escape! The door is heavily guarded on the other side!" I heard Cornello shout out.

"Then I guess we'll just have to make our own!" Edward called back as he pulled ahead, clapping his hands together and pressing them to a random section of wall. With a flash of light, a new door appeared in the wall. It was really detailed, but also _really tacky. _

Edward kicked open his new door, startling the guards to our left and completely bowling over the few who were unlucky enough to be standing in the way. We made a sharp right turn and sprinted down the hall, Cornello chasing after us and shouting at his less than capable guards to get us.

We turned another corner and found the next intersection blocked by about 10 new guards. "Give it up! You're outnumbered and unarmed!" One called out.

Another cried "We don't want to have to hurt you."

Edward glanced at them for a moment before adopting an absolutely _terrifying _grin and alchemy-ing his robot arm into a wicked (and tacky) sword/scythe of death. Needless to say, the men before us started screaming in terror. Hell, even _I _was scared, and I was on his side!

_This would be so much more awesome with background music, _I thought to myself as I jumped over the recently incapacitated guards.

.oOo.

Edward went to Cornello's office, while the other three left to find the bell tower. Alphonse did some alchemy to rise up to the bell and separate it from where it hung. He set the bell down on the ground and pulled out a piece of chalk from a pouch at his thigh.

"What do you think of Cornello now, Rose? He just opened fire. He didn't even care that you were there and could've gotten hurt." Alphonse said as he drew a transmutation circle on the ground.

Rose, though much calmer, still looked shocked. "But… that's because…" She paused, unsure of how her beloved Father Cornello's actions could possibly be excused. She looked down at her hands. "What he said back there is true, isn't it?"

Alphonse paused. "We're not evil." It sounded lame and weak, even to him. "All we wanted to do was see our mom smile again. But we failed, and it cost us dearly. Brother lost his leg, and I lost my entire body." At this, Al turned towards Rose and slowly pulled off his helmet. "Do you see that seal there, at the back? That's the only thing keeping me alive right now. My brother drew that in his own blood and gave up his right arm to save me from our mistake." He put his helmet back on. "Rose… The thing we made…"

"It wasn't even human." Rose stifled a gasp and was about to retort when the bell started talking. It was father Cornello.

"_There you are, you infernal brat!" _Cornello's voice echoed loudly through the bell.

"_Look, can we just cut the crap here?" _Edward could be heard responding. _"All I want are some straight answers about the stone. Tell me what I need to know, and I'll be on my way. Or, we could get the military involved…"_

There was a groan of anger, then the sound of a door being shut. _"Ask your questions."_

"_You could do anything with the Philosopher's Stone, right?" _Ed asked calmly. _"So why waste all that power performing miracles?"_

"_Because with each miracle I can attract new believers to the Order. Believers who would lay down their lives for my sake. I'm slowly building an army, a legion of warriors unafraid to die! In a few more years I'll be ready to unleash this mindless hoard upon the world!" _Cornello sounded positively evil now. _"And I'll use the Philosopher's Stone to tear this country apart. Who knows, I might even carve out a slice for you!" _Cornello gave an evil laugh. Then Ed started laughing with him. _"Wait, what are you laughing about?"_

"_I knew it, you really are a novice, aren't you? Heh." _There was a long pause on the other side of the bell. Jack held up his fingers in a silent count. _Three. Two. One._

"_YOU DON'T MEAN THAT—WHY YOU! HOW LONG? HOW LONG HAS THAT BEEN ON?" _Cornello sounded absolutely murderous.

Edward responded _"From the start. Your 'believers' heard every word." _

"_How could you? You'll pay dearly for this!" _There was an echoing ringing sound that cut off the connection, but not before a clap was heard and the town of Liore could hear Edward cry _"Sorry, not today!"_

Al put down the bell. "He lied to you, Rose. There were never any miracles. Father Cornello was just a fraud."

Rose looked like her world had been shattered. All hope was lost. She was alone.

.oOo.

We made our way down to the front of the church, leaving Rose behind. There were sounds of battle echoing outside earlier, but now it was just Edward waiting there for us. Alphonse made his way to his older brother, asking about how things went.

"And the stone?" I asked at a lax in the conversation.

Edward scowled at me. "A phony, just like that priest." Then his face changed, and he turned to Alphonse. "I'm sorry Al, I thought I had finally found a way to get your body back. Now we're back at square one."

"Give me the Philosopher's Stone!"

We all turned around in mild shock and surprise to see Rose standing there, trembling hands aiming a gun in our general direction. I frowned. When did I leave the gun lying around? I thought I had brought it with me. "Pickpocket." I muttered to myself.

Edward squared his shoulders. "Like I was just saying, it was a fake. Besides, it's just dust now."

"You _liar! _You want to keep the stone for yourself so you can use it on your bodies!" Rose sounded so desperate. "That's right! And so you can bring your mother back to life!"

Edward tensed. "You shut up!" Rose jumped and even I gave him a harsh look. You don't just go yelling at recently traumatized people. Especially not traumatized _girls. _"The dead don't come back to life Rose. Not ever."

Rose shook her head, furiously blinking back tears. "You brought Alphonse back, didn't you? He lost his entire body! There's no way he could have survived that!"

"Rose." I stepped forward, feeling the need to intervene. I couldn't trust Edward to a matter as delicate as this. "When they tried to bring their mother back, they lost their bodies. When Al lost all of his, his soul was still present. The only reason Edward could bring Al back was because he was still here with us. They only took his body. When you die, your soul goes to the gate and passes on, leaving your body here. It's a one way trip, Rose. You can't just open the door and call back whoever you want to. That's the point of _passing on." _I put a hand on her shoulder and slowly pried the gun from her hands. "I'm sorry, but he's never coming back."

Rose fell to the ground, tears freely flowing. "But he… he promised me!" The brothers started moving towards me, ready to get out of this town. "That hope was all I had left! Tell me what to do now! You owe me that much!"

Edward lowered his head, but continued moving. "Stand up and walk. Keep moving forwards. You've got two good legs, so get up and use them." He raised his head, gazing at the sunset before him. "You're strong enough to make your own decisions."

And with that, we left Rose and the town of Liore behind us forever.

.oOo.

The girl in the white dress frowned at the scene before her. "Hey, Truth?"

"Go ahead." The bland god responded boredly. "Just take an equal amount from both this time."

The girl grinned, then proceeded to use alchemy to create something that almost took Truth by surprise. "What would you want that for?"

The girl shrugged, bracelet jingling. "I figured it would make the world a little less boring. Besides, I just remembered I know how to play." She turned towards the instrument before her, sat down, and placed her fingers on the keys.

Music filled the air.

.oOo.

The brothers and their companion stood at the train station, the ginger cat returning from wherever it had vanished to and Jack wielding a new, concealed weapon. Sighing, Ed picked up the phone and called his superior officer.

"Hello, this is Colonel Roy Mustang."

"Hey there, bastard, it's me. Liore was a bust. The stone was fake and the priest was a fraud. The people here are officially better off." Ed sounded tired. "So what now?"

"Now you leave for your new mission." Mustang responded, his smirk practically audible through the telephone. "Being the closest to the location, you're being sent to the coal mining town of Youswell to conduct an inspection. I want an official report for this one."

Edward groaned. "Yeah, yeah, sure." He paused. "While we were here, Ryenn picked up a gun. Should I let him keep it? He's an almost decent shot."

"Let him keep it at your own risk, he's your charge." Mustang replied. "Now get a move on, the next train to Youswell leaves momentarily."

Sure enough, a train whistle sounded at that moment, signaling it was about to pull out of the station. "Aww shit, don't do that to me!" Edward snapped before slamming down the receiver. "C'mon guys, we gotta move now! New mission leaving with that train!"

With that, the group bolted for the train, leaving the city of heresy behind them.

**Woo, done! A special thank you to LeFay Strent, who was the only reviewer for the last chapter, and had the decency to review to every other chapter as well. (my back is much abliged, thank you) I realize that Youswell technically isn't a part of the brotherhood timeline, but it's a part of the manga, and I just LOVE that town, so I'm putting it in.**

**And just a little explanation: That huge speech Jack gave was all knowledge he got from Truth's gate and the story Ed and Al told (well, Al really). That'll be actually put into the story in the next chapter, but I thought I should just clear the confusion now.**

**Winter is a super busy season for me, so don't be too expectant with the updates. I'm trying to get chapter 6 up by Thursday (I won't have time to post on Friday and will be away Saturday and Sunday) but that's rather unlikely, so I'll just update ASAP. **

**See you all again soon! Hope to see some more reviews with this one, too!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I did some thinking and realized that Mustang isn't supposed to be in central yet. Sorry, creative license. I also actually looked at a map and discovered that Amestris is laid out a little differently than I first thought. Sorry about that, too. It won't have a great impact on anything, but I'll be using the official layout for everything from now on. Also , a fun fact: Amestris is about the size of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico if you cut off the corners and made them a circle. I did the math **

**I never used to understand how authors would be all like "I wrote this chapter 8 times and I'm still not pleased with it" when I thought it was fine. I now completely understand. This is my excuse for the horrendously late update. **

**Summary till now: They went to Liore and showed up Cornello. Now they're on the train to Youswell. Wooot!**

.oOo.

They ran onto the train and sat down, slightly out of breath. Once they had started breathing normally again, Ed held out an expectant hand. "Gun."

Jack raised an eyebrow and Alphonse clanked a bit. "Huh?"

"Give me the gun, I'm not interrogating you while you're still holding it." Edward pushed his hand out a little further.

Their companion rolled his eyes. "Fine." He reached behind his back and pulled out the newly acquired weapon, handing it to him handle first. "So if you get to interrogate me, do I get to interrogate you?"

Ed tilted his head. "Why would you get to do that? It's an interrogation."

Jack frowned. "You said something earlier when you were talking to Cornello. Equal something or other. Alchemy laws and all that." He leaned forward. "You're an alchemist, you live by those laws, right? So for every question you ask me, I get to ask you one, too."

Edward sighed. "Fine. So tell me. How did you know about what happened to Al's body?" He leaned forward with suspicion. "I don't remember ever telling you enough to piece that out."

Jack sat back for a moment in thought. "Some of it was what Cornello said, some of it was what you said, and some of it was stuff I observed from my passage through the portal of intellect. It also helped that I was standing _right there _when Al told Rose about it."

Ed deflated a little that the answer wasn't more suspicious. How was he supposed to call him out on being untrustworthy if Jack had come to the same conclusion he would have in that situation? "Oh…"

"Now it's my turn." Jack grinned. "Seemingly irrelevant question number one: what year is it?"

Edward blinked, and Al probably would have if his armor were capable. "Seemingly irrelevant… yeah. It's 1914."

Jack chewed on the corner of his mouth for a moment. "So I see. Thank you. Your turn."

_What was that about? _Ed thought in slight confusion. "Alright then… How familiar are you with guns?"

His eyes widened. "Oh yeah. Not very, I've never held a real one before today. It wasn't that hard to figure out, though. Aim, trigger, pull back the thingy on the top… What was that thing you do? The magic-but-not-really-magic one?"

"Alchemy." The Elrics responded immediately.

"How does it work?" Jack was leaning forward now in anticipation.

Edward glared at him. "That's two questions in a row. Besides, you already know how to do alchemy."

"I'm calling bullshit."

"I call bullshit on your bullshit. You showed up in Colonel Bastard's office using circle-less alchemy." Ed was leaning forward now, too. "How did you manage that one?"

Jack sighed, leaning back and retrieving a semblance of personal space. "That wasn't me. I already said that I came here because our friend 'God' sent me here. So again I ask: how does alchemy work?"

Alphonse stepped in before his older brother could do anything remarkably stupid. "Alchemy is the process of understanding, deconstructing, then reconstructing matter into a new shape. If one wished to obtain, something of equal value must be lost. This is the law of equivalent exchange, which we're using right now in our interrogations. To use alchemy, one has to—"

"AL! Stop telling him everything!" Ed snapped at his little brother. "We don't just go telling anybody the laws of the world! Especially not when the questions _he's _answered don't give us nearly as much information!"

Alphonse looked put out. "…Sorry, Brother."

Jack's brows furrowed. "I could disagree that my answers were any less informative than yours. In fact, I've told you guys much more important stuff than what you've been telling me." He leaned back. "So suck it."

Ed made a face. "I'd rather not. Back to questioning. What's your real purpose here?"

"Save the world."

He shook his head. "No, your _real _purpose here. Not your cover story."

"Save _your _world then."

The older Elric brother scowled. "That's definitely not it, though! Nobody just goes around saving a world that isn't in danger! So I'll ask you _one last time. _What is your purpose here?" His glare was more intense than usual. For someone who wasn't used to it, it would've been quite offsetting.

Jack crossed his arms and leaned back. "Unless the world specifically told you it needed saving. That was what the little guy told me to do, and I'm sticking to it." He huffed. "It's my turn again."

"But—"

"That's all I'm telling you!" The two glared at each other, before Mr. Ryenn had calmed down enough to ask his next question. With a sigh, he inquired "So where are we even headed now?"

Ed, slightly less calm, but more so than earlier, matched his position. "Colonel Bastard sent me to inspect the coal mining town of Youswell. It's the farthest east you could possibly go." He scowled. "Why you're coming along, I don't know."

Jack perked up a bit. "Hang on a tic. **(a/n: haha hermits and anon are so laughing right now) **Colonel Bastard is the player whose office I… was alchemized into. And he _sent _you to Youswell. Does that make you part of the army or something?"

Edward's eyes widened in mild surprise, and Al's glowed a little brighter. "How do you _not _know stuff like that about us? I thought at least _that _was common knowledge by now. I'm pretty famous for it."

Jack scoffed. "Famous for it, huh? Sorry, not where I'm from."

Ed's interest was piqued. "And where exactly _are _you from?"

He tensed. "Classified."

"This is an interrogation! _Nothing _is classified!"

Ryenn shook his head. "It doesn't matter, you've never heard of it, anyways."

Edward scowled. "I saw the same portal you did. I know a lot more stuff than I let on. So again I'll ask: where do you come from?"

Jack grinned slightly. "I'm gonna start big and narrow this down for you, ok?" His traveling companion rolled his eyes. "The planet Earth."

Edward blinked. "Yeah, I assumed as much."

"Northwestern hemisphere."

"That's pretty far from here."

"North America."

"Where?"

Jack grinned even bigger. "That's the name of the continent."

Edward scowled. "This is an _interrogation! _You can't lie!"

Jack merely shook his head. "I wasn't lying, but I told you it wasn't anywhere you've ever heard of."

"Because it doesn't exist!"

"Maybe not here it doesn't…"

Edward scowled (again). "What's that supposed to mean?"

**(read this aloud, it'll help) **"One question a' a time, ma'e! Besides, you've go' enough infamation to figgah that one ou' all on ya own." Jack had adopted a strange accent when he said this. His vowels sounded… snobbier, and he didn't quite pronounce most of his T's and R's.

Edward growled in annoyance. "Time fa seeminly irrelevant question numbah two!" Jack sounded way too cheerful for someone under interrogation, and was still talking in that weird accent. "Wha's up wi' you' hair?"

He blinked. "My hair? What's up with _your _hair? I don't think I've ever met someone with hair so… scruffy."

Jack rolled his eyes. "My hair is jus' unmanageable. _Your _hair is downright feminine." He smirked. "If I di'n't know any bettah, I'd say you we'e gey."

Edward blinked. "My hair is NOT feminine! And what's… 'geh'?" **(a/n: sorry, best british accent I could type out. You know what I mean…) **

Jack's eyes widened as he started snickering uncontrollably. "Do you guys…. Has that concept not…? Oh, that is just _rich!" _By now he was laughing outright, and while the older Elric brother was glad to see the annoying accent fade, he was still completely lost about this whole "geh" thing.

"What is it?!" Ed yelled at him, only causing the nuisance to laugh even harder. Sighing, he sat up straight again in his chair, eyes still grinning.

"If you don't know, I'm not about to tell you. Let's preserve the child's innocence for a little while longer."

That… was a bad way of wording it.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A SNOT NOSED SHORTY?!" Edward had jumped up and reared back a fist to beat his detainee senseless when Alphonse came to the rescue.

"Stop Brother! He didn't mean it like that! And if you're going to punch somebody, at least use your left hand!" The suit of armor had grabbed his older brother's flailing limbs before he could cause any injuries, but his shouting had gathered all the attention of the few other people on the train. Jack's eyes had widened a bit, but that slowly changed into an evil grin worthy of the Grinch.

"Oh ho ho? What have we here? Is someone a tad bit sensitive about their height?" Jack had clasped his hands together and leaned forward in anticipation. "Or lack thereof, I should say."

"DON'T CALL ME SMALL, DAMMIT!" Edward, though still being restrained by his younger brother, had free reign over his mouth, and was using it to shamelessly proclaim his rage. One appalled mother covered the ears of her child.

"Brother! Calm down! You're disturbing the other passengers!"

Ed's eyes narrowed dangerously and he huffed, slumping back into his bench once Al had released him. The way he crossed his arms and pointedly looked out the window made his message clear. The interrogation was over.

.oOo.

The closer we got to Youswell, the less people were on the train. Of the five train stations we passed, the cart we were in was ours and ours alone by the fourth one. The sixth stop was at Youswell, the farthest city to the east.

To say it was a ghost town wouldn't do the place justice. Not only was the place dusty, barren, old-looking and downright _western _(ironic, I know), the people just looked depressed. They were worn down, dirty, and simply exhausted. Not many people looked up when we arrived, and the ones that did clearly couldn't have cared less what we were doing there.

"I thought this was supposed to be a coal mining town. Looks more like a ghost town to me." Edward said with a grin. _Great minds think alike… _The blonde sighed. "This job is gonna suck. C'mon Al, let's g—ACK!" A beam of wood that I may or may not have seen coming collided with the back of his head, knocking him to the ground.

"Huh?" The boy carrying the two-by-four couldn't have been older than twelve. He had light brown hair that was kind of spikey and vertical and even though he wasn't smiling at the moment, you could tell he was a generally cheery kid. "Sorry." He said, swinging his beam back around. Then his eyes widened. "Hey wait a minute, are you guys tourists?" A grin appeared on his young face. "Where'd you come from? Do you want any food? Have you decided where you're staying yet?"

I snickered at Edward's bewildered expression while the kid waved off to someone up above us. "Hey Pops! We've got tourists!"

A buff man with hair of the same color, though less vertical appeared over the ledge. "What was that, Kayal?"

Kayal waved his free arm above his head. "Over here! Big spenders!"

Edward snapped his head around at the child. "Big spenders?"

The man above them didn't seem to be fazed. "Howdy!" _Definitely western… _"I'm Hulling! We'll take good care of you!"

.oOo.

"So… that'll be meals and a room for three for the night?" The woman behind the counter was kindly looking, chestnut hair pulled back into a low but neat bun.

Edward frowned. "Three?"

I coughed in a 'discreet' fashion. "Yeah, hi."

My midget friend scowled at me. "You can pay for your own room."

"Uuh, about that…"I placed a sheepish hand behind my head and gave him my best 'help me' smile.

Edward's gaze darkened. "Oh no, you are so NOT—"

"It's not like I was planning on this before I got dropped off here! And I doubt he's gonna just give me an allowance or anything!" I snapped at him. "Besides, you pay for Al!"

Edward turned on me. "That's completely different! Al is my little brother, I have to take care of him!"

I smirked, resting an elbow on his shoulder. "What, and we're not brothers now? We've done so much together!"

The little runt growled and shoved my arm off of his. "No, we are not!"

It was at this moment that Alphonse decided to step in. "Brother, you have to take care of him, he's your charge!" Sparta meowed her agreement.

His older brother sighed in reluctant defeat. "Fine, fine, I'll pay for the kid, too. How much is it?"

Mr. Hulling glanced over and grinned wickedly. "It 'aint cheap."

Edward grinned in response. "Don't worry 'bout it! Despite our appearance, we've got enough to spend here!"

Hulling raised 3 fingers. "300,000."

Now, I don't claim to be an expert on currency, but judging from the brothers' reaction, that was a complete and total rip-off.

"WHAT! THAT'S RIDICULOUS! ARE YOU GONNA PUT GOLD BARS ON OUR PILLOWS OR SOMETHING?" Edward screeched, throwing his wallet down in frustration.

Hulling and his son wore matching grins. "We don't get much tourists here, so we've gotta milk you for all your worth! Besides, this is the finest inn in town!"

"Not to mention the _only _inn!" Kayal added.

The brothers left to go count the money in their wallets. I might have been mistaken, but I think I heard Edward mutter something about nobody just carrying 300K with them. They discussed a little more, and Kayal walked up to their little huddle secretly. There was some more muttering, and then Kayal shouted out. "Hey dad! These guys are alchemists!" The look of surprise on little Goldilocks's face was _so priceless. _

The next few minutes consisted of Edward fixing just about anything and everything that was broken, from mining tools to Mrs. Hulling's favorite vase. Being the kind man he was, Hulling gave us a discount. From 300,000 to 200,000, which was a decent enough discount (was everything Edward fixed _really _worth 100,000?), though it was still way out of budget according to the shrimp's face.

"So what brings you to Youswell?" Kayal asked with a grin. "There's not much to do way out here."

"Just business. In fact, I'm here to inspect the coal mines." Edward smiled back.

The change was immediate. People stopped talking, glasses stopped clinking, it was like someone had taken the atmosphere dial and turned it from 'carefree' to 'splatter zone'.

Hulling was the first to respond. "Inspect? So you're a part of the military?"

"That's right!" Edward replied with a grin, oblivious to everything. "I'm a state alchemist."

Hulling rose, grabbed Edward by the hood of his coat, opened the door, and _literally _tossed him out of the inn. Edward landed in an undignified heap.

"Hey! What the hell was that for?"

Hulling and the miners stood in the doorjamb. "We have no food or bed for any dogs of the military." He turned to face Alphonse and me. "You guys one of them state alchemists, too?"

"Umm…"

"They've got nothing to do with this!" Edward shouted from his seat on the ground. "I just met them on the train!"

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Edward was defending me? I could understand him sticking out for Al, but I was just his annoying little tagalong. I would've thought he'd sell me out and make me chill with him. "You can sleep outside with the rest of the dogs." Hulling said with a huff as he closed the door.

Chatter resumed, but much quieter than before. The air was so thick with tension I doubt a machete would be able to do anything about it. We sat down at a table with Kayal. "Your dad sure feels strongly about this." Alphonse noted quietly. I nodded. These people were freaking _nuts. _

"Of course he does!" Kayal snapped, glaring into his mug. "Everyone here hates the stupid army. And that greedy sucker Yoki is the worst out of all of 'em."

"Yoki?" I frowned in confusion.

Hulling walked over, bringing food and drinks that I don't remember us paying for (not that I was arguing). "Lieutenant Colonel Yoki is the man in charge of this town. He lowers our wages and raises our taxes like nobody's business." I munched on my burger. It was kinda crappy, but food is food. "And now he's got that… that filthy state alchemist to do all his bidding!"

I may not have been able to see Alphonse's actual expression, but I could almost tell he was trying not keep himself under control. Taking a swig of whatever drink they had served me, I observed Hulling continue his rant. "'Alchemists Be Thou For The People', that's their crack of a slogan. But the only people they care about are their own damn selves."

I frowned as I finished my burger. Edward didn't seem as corrupt as Hulling made him out to be. If he was only basing his opinion on this Yoki guy, he must be pretty horrid. Sighing, I pushed myself us. "I need some fresh air." I noticed Al's uneaten tray of food. He wouldn't be able to consume anything if he didn't have a mouth to put it down. "Hey Al, you mind?" I motioned towards his tray. Al shook his head and I grabbed the tray, making my way out the door.

Edward was sitting somewhere over to my right, stomach growling and staring at the sky like it just might take pity on him and rain down some meatballs. "Moon, old buddy, old pal, I really wish you _were _made out of cheese!" He sighed and dropped his head in dejection.

"It'd be kinda hard to reach the moon from here, even if it were made out of cheese." I said as I sat down. I frowned. "When did they do that? 70's, maybe?"

Edward frowned at me. "What are you going on about now?"

I paled a bit, realizing my mistake. It was only 1914 here! "Uh, nothing. Nothing important, anyway." I held out the tray. "I snuck out some food for you, Mr. 'Dog-o'-the-Military'. Don't worry, I didn't have time to poison it."

He looked at it apprehensively before giving in to hunger and taking a large bite of the sandwich. "So did you not eat anything?"

"Nah, this is Al's food. He let me take it, seeing as he's not gonna be eating it anyway." I sat down beside him and stared at the sky. I was never particularly interested in astronomy or anything, but there was absolutely _nothing_ familiar in that sky. No big dipper, no Orion's belt, and even the moon, which was the only remotely familiar thing there, looked more defined to me than I'd ever seen it. I sighed. "Some mess we're in here."

"Te' me 'bou' i'" Edward said through a mouthful of food. He swallowed the mountain, which was interesting to watch. "They've got a hell of a loathing for state alchemists here."

"Oh yeah, they were talking about that before." I lounged back onto the chilled wood porch. "Apparently the guy who runs this town is a greedy little sucker. They've got the worst kind of corrupt in charge of anything and everything they do. And now they're convinced that you're the same as him, just because you're also a part of the military." I frowned. "It's unfair, but not unjustified if you stand in their shoes."

Edward munched on his burger in thought. And we just sat there for a while, staring at the sky and eating overpriced food. It was a nice and peaceful for a change. A perfect time for thinking about the deep shit I was in.

I was in a new world where technology was a century behind and they had an almost magic called alchemy. They could do just about anything with this power, and it was a part of their military. That meant it was probably this world's equivalent to the atomic bomb. If they could combine alchemy with modern science… _that's terrifying. _Maybe that was what I had to save them from. Save this world from heading down the dangerous path it was aiming towards. Assuming that this one followed my own. But there was always the possibility that it wouldn't. What would I do if I couldn't predict the way the world would go?

And was I even supposed to save the entire world? That seemed like a pretty big task on its own. The Gate voices had said to "save them", but it had never specified who exactly I was supposed to save. Was it the entire world, the Elric brothers, or even just this one little mining town? Was I simply supposed to save everybody I came across? We helped out the people in Liore, but nothing had happened, so that couldn't have been the only thing I had to do. It was all just so damn confusing!

_Just go with the flow._

I blinked. The advice was something I always used to do, before everything got all mystically jumped up. I would do whatever the hell I wanted and everything would usually just work itself out in the end. Be it homework, chores, or a random project I was working on, if I let it take me along for the ride, I tended to end up in a decent enough spot. So… I should just go with the flow now and save whoever I could with the Elric brothers.

I smiled. Sounded like a good enough plan for now!

"Step aside."

I blinked, turning my head in the direction of the voice. Edward had paused his drinking, mug still held to his face in surprise. The voice had come from a female within a group of four people, the other three of which were male. Unlike the guys of the group, the girl wasn't wearing what I assumed to be the military uniform. Instead, she had on a black shirt (no logo, I don't suppose they had those in the early 1900s) and quite the miniskirt.

_Mustang would love this chick. She even has his same attitude problems!_

The guy in the middle of the group was talking, though it took me a minute to figure that out, since he was holding a handkerchief (seriously? A _handkerchief?_) over his mouth. It looked like he didn't want to be there on the outside, but there was an underlying tone in his smug little voice that told me he was enjoying every second of this.

That is, until Kayal threw a wet cloth at his face.

I started laughing like you would _not _believe. That little punk kid had _quite _the arm! And the way the main man's face was twitching afterwards! It was just so freaking _priceless! _

The girl didn't seem to think so though. "How DARE you!?" She screeched, raising her arms up towards her chest, where I could see the flash of a necklace. There was some supernatural wind and a blast of red light, and Kayal came crashing down towards the floor. I stopped laughing.

"You brat!" A thug with a sword walked over to the defenseless kid.

The middle man chose that moment to add his two cents. "Oh, don't kill him!" He smirked evilly. "He just wanted to be an example."

My eyes widened in shock. Kayal's mother covered her face in her hand, and the rest of the men seemed to be frozen, too surprised to do anything as the thug came lunging towards Kayal.

_Clang!_

There was a sound of metal on metal as Edward, the quickest to get over his stupor, shot between Kayal and the brute. He raised his right arm—his _metal _arm—which was still holding his mug, and defended the kid. I sighed in relief and grinned.

"Just _who _the _hell _are you?!" The guy in the middle cried in outrage. Edward simply straightened up and reached into his pocket.

"When I heard the Lieutenant would be dropping by," oh, so _this guy _was Yoki. Certainly lived up to his reputation. "I thought I would pay him a little visit." He flashed his pocket watch.

I raised an eyebrow. What was a freaking pocket watch gonna do against a Lieutenant? The other thug appeared to be thinking the same thing. He whispered into Yoki's ear in confusion. Yoki hissed something back to him, and I think I heard the word 'king' mentioned somewhere in there. _Ooh, that's his military ID. _

Yoki snapped out of his stupor. Clasping his hands together in what I assumed was supposed to be an apologetic fashion, he began moving towards Edward. "I'm so sorry for the rudeness of my subordinate! Now do tell me, what business would someone such as yourself have in our humble little bird?" He ended with a sweet smile. I was reminded of Dolores Umbridge from the fifth Harry Potter book, with her pink, her 'sweet', and her 'smiles'.

"I'm just here to conduct an inspection." Edward replied, completely business. This must have been the voice he used when talking to military people that weren't one 'Colonel Bastard'.

"An inspection? How… marvelous." Loki was _really _buttering it up. "Then you simply _must _stay at my mansion. I hope you haven't had to mingle with these unwashed mongrels for too long." Loki turned and began to walk away, Edward following behind him.

As the group walked back out the door, I caught the attention of the girl. "Psst!"

Her eyes widened for a moment, then after glancing around to make sure Yoki wasn't looking, she came over to me. "Yes?"

"Can I ask you something?" I used my most charming smile.

She nodded. "Yes, what do you want?" She added a small smile at the end. Maybe she thought I wasn't as dirty as the other guys in the inn.

"Something secret."

Her brows furrowed. "Alright…" She leaned forwards a bit as I moved to whisper into her ear.

Then, taking her by surprise, I moved one hand to the base of her neck, another to her collarbone, and kissed her right on the mouth.

She gasped in surprised and yanked away forcefully, then she slapped me across the face. Eyes burning, cheeks flushed, she moved back to where the other military members were.

I took a step back, then smiled at her back, once again noticing the length of her skirt.

_Oh yeah, definitely one for Mustang._

.oOo.

Sparta followed the unsuspecting group, her soft paws padding silently on the hard ground. She wandered after them, hidden in the shadows, until they reached a large mansion at the top of a hill. Her feline head tilted. _Now how am I going to get inside?_

Her slit eyes scanned in the darkness, searching for anything that would let her follow the older Elric brother. _And Bingo was his name-o. _There was an open window on the first floor. It was a little too convenient for her tastes, but beggars can't be choosers. With the agility of, well, a cat, she hopped up onto the ledge and down onto the tile floor.

Once again padding silently behind the group, she followed them around. Until a pair of double doors closed in her face.

Sparta hissed in annoyance. _How rude! _Sulking, she went and sat down around the corner, waiting for her group to get out of their private little meeting.

Several hours later, Edward came out, being led by two girls in maid outfits. A man in uniform went to the greasy bald man and whispered something about Hulling's inn. The man turned back to him and murmured "Burn it down."

Sparta noticed Edward tense at this, but there wasn't much he could do while being led to wherever. _I had to warn Alphonse and Jack! _She bolted from the mansion as fast as her feline legs would carry her, then paused at an obscure intersection. _So… where was the inn again?_

.oOo.

About two hours after that, Alphonse Elric was sitting on his bed, bored out of his mind. Jack's room was across the hall, but he probably wouldn't be awake at this hour. A soft meow from the window caught his attention. Moving as quietly as his armor would allow, he tip-toed over to the window.

"Sparta?" His metallic voice clanged softly. The kitten was meowing at him with what appeared to be urgency. It was weird, coming from a cat. Frowning, he glanced around. Then his eyes widened. "Oh no!"

Not caring about being quiet anymore, he ran across the hall, banging on the door. "Jack! Jack!" The door opened, a slightly more ruffled Jack standing behind it. Surprisingly enough, he was fully dressed.

"Yeah." He said, shoving past the door. "I can smell it from here. Let's go."

They bolted down the hall at top speed, waking up the rest of the house's inhabitants. "Hey." Kayal mumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Waz goin' on?" There was an ominous creak from above them and Alphonse jumped forwards, protecting the boy and Jack as the roof came tumbling down around them.

"KAYAL!" Mr. Hulling could be heard from outside, straining against the men around him. "Let me go! Kayal! KAYAL!"

"We can't lose you too, Boss!" One shouted, struggling to hold the coal miner back.

"Dad!" Kayal shouted from inside the rubble. A pile moved away as Alphonse stood up, the group running away from the flames and towards Mr. Hulling. Kayal hugged his father. "I'm here…"

Jack stood slightly apart from the rest and frowned at the fire, which was being put out by the rest of the townspeople. Fingering the collar of his shirt, he turned away from the heat, heading towards a mansion atop a hill.

.oOo.

Edward Elric was sprinting as fast as he could towards the burning building, having snuck out of the window the first chance he got. His steps faltered as he caught sight of Jack, causing him to stumble and slide down the hill, crashing into Jack and taking him with him the rest of the way.

"Aaaugh…" Jack grumbled, clutching his head. "First a concussion, now I've got freaking Jill 'tumbling after', I wasn't coming to get some water, damn it!"

Edward blinked and stood up. "What the hell are you going on about _now?" _

Jack scowled, then recited. "'Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.' It's an old nursery rhyme, and you just proved yourself as Jill. Thank you, by the way, my head is in even _more _pain now."

Ed reached his hand down to help up his fallen travelling companion. "Yeah yeah, whatever. What were you doing over here, anyways! The inn is on fire!"

"Was." Jack corrected. "The inn was on fire. Nobody was hurt, by the way, except for me just now." He rubbed the back of his head again, further mussing his already messy hair.

Ed growled in annoyance. "Uh huh, sorry." He said sarcastically. "But seriously, what were you doing up here?" The two started walking down the hill again.

"I was looking for you." Jack grumbled. "This is the sort of thing you're supposed to prevent, right? 'Alchemists be thou for the people' and all?"

"I was on my way there!" Ed cried indignantly.

Jack sighed. "Better late than never, I suppose…"

Edward crossed his arms and looked away. They walked in silence for the rest of the trek down to the inn.

Upon arriving, the two simply went to Alphonse and stood there, assessing the damage. "Hey, you." Kayal wandered over to them, looking downright beaten. "You're some kind of fancy alchemist right?"

Edward frowned, glancing at the kid who was almost as tall as he was. "Yeah, I guess…"

"Well, can't you just make some gold then?" Kayal cried. "For my dad! You could save the whole town!"

Ed looked pointedly away. "I can't."

"Why noy? It won't cost you nuthin'!" Kayal was on the verge of tears now.

Jack chose this moment to intervene. "Even if he could give you all some gold, Lieutenant Greasy would just take it all away in taxes, and you guys would be back to square one." He frowned. "If it's so awful here, why haven't you all just packed up and moved on out to somewhere better?"

"Kid, this may not make a lot of sense to you," Hulling grabbed his son's shoulder, "but this place—it's both our home, and our coffin."

Edward was quiet for a moment before he smiled. "Home and coffin… that's got a nice ring to it." The trio turned away from the wreckage, to a destination only Edward seemed to know.

"You will help those people though, right?" Alphonse asked, catching up quickly with his brother.

"Of course." Ed said, waving him off. "I just need to figure out how…"

"Gold." Jack responded wisely. "Give a shitload of money to the old jerk and reappoint this town. You're conducting an inspection; you can suggest that stuff, right?"

Edward slowed down, lost in thought. "That would work, but it would also take time." His face lit up after a moment's pause. "But you did give me an idea!" Turning slightly, he headed over to the large carts of coal. Jack frowned at it, and Al clanked his head a bit.

"How much coal do you think is here?" Edward asked, jumping on top of a cart.

"One… maybe two tons?" Alphonse responded, gauging the mass of the carts and the weight of the coal.

Edward grinned, spilling a bag of gold coins onto the carbon. "What you're about to see here stays strictly between us!"

Alphonse sighed while the rising sun blocked out the blue light of the transmutation. "I have such a bad older brother…" He groaned as the inky black hunks melted into pristine gold bars.

Jack smirked. "I've done worse."

.oOo.

Yoki's jaw nearly hit the floor. "You want to _buy _the Youswell coal mines?"

"Yep!" Edward said with a cheery smile. "And while you're at it, I want you to throw in everything from the industry to the trading routes!"

Yoki gained a semblance of composure. "Well, I'm sorry to say that—even for a state man such as yourself—the mine just isn't for sale." He clasped his hands in front of his chest, as if the gesture actually meant something.

"Aww, now that's just too bad." Edward said with a pout. _That's my cue. _I opened the doors wide, revealing the completely phony and completely HEAVY 'gold bars' that he had made earlier. "And here we lugged all this gold in for nothing!"

Yoki's jaw dropped again. "Is tha" he took a stumble forward, beady eyes aglitter with lust "_real gold?"_

Edward grinned. "You bet! Turns out the mines are full of great minerals that would be a real booster for alchemic research, and I don't wanna miss out!" He sighed in disdain. "But if it's not on the market…"

"Aaahhh…" Yoki turned towards the runt quickly. "No no no, you see, I was entrusted by my superior officers to govern these mines. Selling them for my own gain may seem just a bit…"

Edward smiled knowingly and nodded his head. "Yeah, I've got you. Don't worry, none of this appears in any of the records."

The man nodded his head in agreement, though his smile seemed a bit worried. "Yes, that would be good, but still…"

Edward paused. "Hmm… I KNOW!" His grin lit up. It looked phony to me, but Yoki was a complete phony anyway, so he was probably used to it. "How about we write up an official document stating that you hand over all the rights to me, free of charge! Then you can take all of this gold as: an unrelated gift."

Yoki's face started practically glowing. It was so weird…

.oOo.

They made their way to a local bar, where the word on the street was that a meeting was being held to strike back against Yoki. All the while Jack was frowning, deep in thought. "Hey Edward?"

"Hmm?" Edward glanced over his shoulder.

"Can I have that gun back?"

He blinked and stopped walking, turning to face Jack completely. "Why would you want that back?"

His sarcastic companion shrugged. "Insurance. You two have your fancy alchemy to protect yourselves against anything dangerous, but I'm stuck relying on the two of you. Even just the threat of a gun can sometimes be enough."

Edward frowned. "If I give you the gun and you end up killing me, I'll haunt you 'till the end of your days."

"I can live with that."

Edward nodded. "Alphonse. Keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't do anything remarkably stupid." He handed Jack the gun, grabbing it from some inner pocket.

The armored boy sighed. "So now I have to watch over _both _of you? One is difficult enough!"

Golden eyes narrowed. "Well, yeah, but I don't trust him completely. I understand his viewpoint, but there's no way I'm turning my back to a guy with a gun without having some" he smirked "'insurance'."

They resumed walking and made their way to the bar, where shouts could be heard. It sounded kind of like Kayal was angry. Ed smirked. The adults probably weren't letting him do anything. Grinning like a madman, he held his box by his side. "Hiya!" He kicked open the door. "Let's see if I can turn those frowns upside down!"

Hulling's gaze darkened. "What do _you _want?" he growled.

The older Elric brother pouted. "Aw, now is that any way to treat your new boss, landlord, and all around overviewer?"

One of the coal mining men jumped up. "What do you mean?!"

His grin returned. "I hold here the deed to the entire town of Youswell and everything that goes on within it!" His gaze dropped. "The only problem is, I go travelling quite a bit. I'm not even sure if this is worth carrying around!" He waved the box above his head for emphasis.

"Argh…" Hulling was pissed. "So now we've gotta bribe you, too?"

"You bet." Ed said with a smirk. "And it 'aint gonna be cheap to use your words. This is high quality parchment with vellum embossed in gold! The box has delicate designs in a fine jade, and the key is sterling silver! Oh yeah, this is craftsmanship." He grinned. "I'd say it's gotta be worth around 2—" Jack coughed loudly. "300,000!"

The miners were shocked. "300K? For the entire deed to Youswell?"

"You know, now that I think about it…" Edward scratched his chin in thought "a room at the inn cost about 300K." He grinned. "We'll spend the night here and call it even!"

Hulling's expression slowly changed from angry to shocked to pleased. "Equivalent exchange…" he grinned.

Kayal frowned. "But our inn was destroyed last night!"

Edward cocked his head. "Really? Then what's that over there?" He turned towards the open door, where a brand new inn was sitting on the land where the old one was.

Everyone walked around and marveled at the sight of the building. It was a miracle! Almost like magic, but it was real! "So this should cover our stay, right?" Edward asked, handing Hulling the box for the deed.

He smiled back. "Yeah."

"ELRIC!" Edward smirked, then turned to face one slightly disheveled Lieutenant. "What is the meaning of this?" Yoki was in an outrage, clutching an armful of worthless hunks of coal. "All the gold bars you gave me turned into coal!"

Edward frowned. "Gold bars? I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Don't play dub with me! I traded you the deed to Youswell for a mountain of gold bars!"

The young alchemist shook his head. "No, you gave it to me free of charge!" He pulled out an official looking document. "At least that's what it says here!"

Yoki stumbled. "Why you—LYRA!" He turned to face his female alchemist companion, demanding she do something about his predicament.

The girl raised her hands to her chest, only to find her transmutation necklace gone! _When did I lose—_her thoughts wandered to a certain dark haired youth, who had swept her off her feet earlier. _Then, taking her by surprise, he moved one hand to the base of her neck, another to her collarbone, and kissed her right on the mouth._That was when he had stolen it! The little shit! Sensing someone was thinking about him, Jack smirked and waved at the girl.

"Lyra?" Yoki sounded almost worried now, though he was still too angry to really care.

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant, it seems I won't be able to help you here." Lyra mumbled under her breath, still glaring at the boy.

The coal miners took this as their chance. "Don't go anywhere, Lieutenant! We'll be doing to you physically what you've been doing to us financially for years!"

"Don't underestimate the strength of a coal mining man, Yoki." Another said, cracking his knuckles menacingly.

Lyra heard the man's screams of terror and pain even as she slipped into the shadows.

.oOo.

I watched the chick sneak away. Frowning, I followed her. Once we had gone a decent enough distance away I made my move. "Hey."

She whipped around, hair making an almost halo around her face. "You! You stole my necklace!"

I turned my head. "Maybe I did. What's it matter? If you didn't notice until just now, it must not be that important to you. I think I'll just keep it."

"No!" She shouted at me. "Give it back to me now!"

I frowned. "Not if that's the way you ask. Why do you need it so badly, anyway?"

Lyra paused as if truly considering her reasoning, then glared angrily at the ground. "I need to become a state alchemist." She mumbled.

"Oh, I see. And you need to be Yoki's bitch to do that?"

"It was my best option!" She snapped at me. "Getting in to the test isn't easy, and Yoki was a sucker. If I could have gotten a little closer to him, he would have gotten me in, I know it!"

I shook my head. "That's not what it looked like to me." I frowned, contemplating the best wording for it. "Yoki only thought of you as his little pet to do his bidding at every beck and call. He was greedy, and he had no business helping you because it wouldn't have benefitted him in any way."

"But—"

"If you really want to become a state alchemist, keep improving your alchemy until you're good enough to work for the state." I furrowed my brow. "That's the way everybody else does it, right?"

Lyra scowled. "I'll need my necklace to do that."

I grinned. "No you won't. This old piece of junk won't be worthy of your alchemy once you improve yourself." I turned, raising a hand in a parting wave. "Best of luck to you!"

I walked away, leaving an annoyed girl with a serious perspective problem behind me.

.oOo.

It was late by the time Jack made his way back to the inn. "Hey Jack!" Alphonse called out cheerily, though quietly. "Where have you been?"

He shrugged. "Out and about. Thinking about the stuff I have and the stuff I need to know."

Alphonse clanked. "What do you need to know?"

The dark haired youth scowled. "Exactly what I'm up against, and a lot of stuff that you would probably consider general knowledge."

"Hmm… I don't know how to help you with what your facing, except to prepare for the worst." Al suggested helpfully. "As far as general stuff… what would you like to know?"

He shrugged. "Just talk about your country."

The suit of armor reverberated as Al sat down. "Well, we're a very militaristic country that uses the state alchemists during times of war. We were at war for a really long time while brother and I were younger, although I'm not completely sure about all the details. I do know that it was ended when the Fuhrer sent in the state alchemists though." He paused, noticing Jack's suddenly paler complexion. "What's wrong?"

"…Did you just say Fuhrer?"

Alphonse nodded his helmet. "Yes, that's right. The leader of our country is Fuhrer King Bradley."

Jack grimaced. "Well _fuck."_

**I am so sorry. That should not have taken me a month. I blame that first interrogation part. It was so painful. **

**On the bright side, this is by far the longest chapter yet **** more than twice the length of the previous longest chapter. I'll be trying to write more quickly now, and I should probably have more time to do it now, too. I've given up all reading for fun for Lent. All of it. I'm not reading books, fanfiction, or manga. However, I am still editing my friend's stuff and writing** **fanfiction and watching anime. So it's kinda a half and half thing. **

**I'm sorry for the sudden swearing towards the end, it seemed to fit. I'll try to keep the cussing to a minimum, but I'm not making any promises. Also, a huge shoutout to both LeFay Strent, who helped a lot with the motivation for this chapter and Clair Aragon, who reviewed after it had been sitting for several weeks. They helped a lot. Also, smaller shoutout to That Asian Chick, HermitsUnited87, and Anonymous-Heavy-On-The-Anon for helping me brainstorm like you would not believe. This wouldn't have come out as good as it has without you.**

**Random bonus: If you can figure out why Anon and Hermits would be laughing, you will get something fantastic. I'm not sure what it is yet, but it'll be awesome.**

**Happy Valentine's Day!**


	7. Chapter 7

**"That ironic moment when you get a concussion at the same time as your main character." -HermitsUnited87 I'll tell you all the entire story in the bottom author's note.**

**Summary: Jack has been to Liore, where he acquired the gun, and Youswell, where he stole Lyra's necklace from right around her throat. At the end, Alphonse was talking about Amestris and mentioned that the head of the country was Fuhrer King Bradley. Jack is now freaking out.**

.oOo.

"Well _fuck._" I said intelligently.

Alphonse gasped. "Jack! Watch your language!"

But I wasn't listening. They had a _Fuhrer _as their head of government. A freaking FUHRER! I wasn't much of a history buff, but there was one Fuhrer that everyone knew. You don't forget someone like that. Hitler was fine for me back in my other life because he was just a name and a story. Sure, I'd seen the videos and been saddened by what happened, but at the same time, I made Hitler jokes all the time. I'm still a kid! Who cared anyways, the guy killed himself! And here I was now, dealing with World War freaking 2 during the time of World War 1. In another world, I might add. How was I supposed to help these people fight against Hitler Jr.? I was just one kid!

_OK OK calm down, Jack. We don't even know if this Fuhrer is anything like Hitler. For all I know, it could just be a coincidence that they shared a title. There's no need to panic quite yet. I'll have to look into this Fuhrer King Bradley, and the war he led._

"Jack?" Al's hollow voice asked, probably noticing the serious expression on my face. "Jack, what's wrong?"

I shook my head. "Nothing." Even to me, it didn't sound very convincing. "It's just… the only other Fuhrer I know was very bad news. Like, pack up your stuff and go into hiding bad news. I'm probably just jumping to conclusions, though. The chances of the two of them being even remotely similar are slim to none. Don't worry about it." I stood up to go to bed. "I'll see you in the morning Al. Don't let your brother leave without me."

Alphonse nodded. "Yeah… alright."

With grim thoughts, I went and turned in for the night. Didn't sleep a wink, though.

.oOo.

The next morning, Edward woke up earlier than usual. Yawning, he glanced at the rising sun and absently scratched his face. It was Friday morning, and he had just about completed his mission. He only had to write out the official report on the review of the coal mine and deliver it to… _him. _Groaning, he dragged himself downstairs to write the document out on an actual table. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't alone. Jack was also there, sitting at a table and looking altogether dead.

Ed glanced in his direction, then shrugged. It wasn't his problem if Ryenn was tired, so long as he didn't hold them back. Sitting down at the next table over, he began to write his report.

Several minutes passed before Ed noticed the other thing about Jack. The kid _reeked. _Thinking back, he realized that he had never seen Jack shower, or even wear a different outfit. Actually, he didn't know if Jack even owned other clothes. As far as Ed was aware, he only had a gun, that damn cat, and what he was wearing right now. Wrinkling his nose, he turned to face his companion.

"Are those your only clothes?" Al would probably have said that with a little more tact, but it was early, and he was still tired.

Jack raised his head, then glanced down at his shirt and jeans getup. "Hmm? Oh, yeah. I should probably get them cleaned soon." Jack frowned. "When did they invent washing machines again?" He muttered to himself.

Ed raised an eyebrow. "Why do you care? Mrs. Hulling will take care of it, I'm sure. Now go shower, I'll bring them down to her."

Nodding dully, Jack rose, then paused in the doorway. "Um… where's the bathroom?"

"Up the stairs and on the right."

Nodding his thanks, Jack turned and headed up the stairwell. Ed gave him a few minutes, working on his review of Yoki's uselessness and how they really needed to reappoint the government here, then followed Jack upstairs. Outside the bathroom door was a pile of clothes that was almost orderly looking. _At least he_ _didn't put his boxers on top _Ed thought as he picked up the articles of clothing. Frowning, he looked down at the shirt on top. He had never really cared about what Jack was wearing, but now that the clothes were in his hand, he was curious as to what the paragraph on his shirt actually said.

Placing the rest of the clothes down, he held up the red shirt and examined the white print on it. The words read:

I was

Chased from my house,

Stabbed by a wraith,

Assaulted by a mutant octopus,

Speared by a troll,

Stalked by a creepy little man,

Drawn into a corpse-filled swamp,

Poisoned by a giant spider,

Rendered unconscious…

And even _lost _my Ring,

And all I got was this lousy t-shirt.

Edward stared at the shirt in confusion. _…What? _The shirt made absolutely no sense to him. Why would anyone put that on a shirt? Whether it was true or not (and he seriously doubted that any of that was true) he simply couldn't comprehend what any of it meant.

Shaking his head, he picked up the rest of the clothes and resumed his search for Mrs. Hulling.

.oOo.

It was only after the shower that I realized I had no clothes to change into. And that Edward's were probably too small to fit. Bored out of my mind, I sat on my towel examining the various objects I had in the pockets of my pants.

There was the gun (which was actually tucked into the back of my pants, but whatever) and Lyra's necklace, my only weapons in this world. Lyra's necklace wouldn't actually be a weapon until I figured out how this whole 'alchemy' thing worked, but it would still probably intimidate some alchemists if they happened to see it. Shrugging, I put on the metal pendant. The other objects on my being were things from back home. For some reason, my school backpack didn't travel across the gate with me (not that I needed to arm myself with a copy of "Lord of the Flies" in the afterlife-ish-place) but I did have my wallet, my keys, and my cell phone. The wallet had my school ID and about $30, both of which would be completely useless here. Unless they had the same currency for some strange reason, but I doubted it. The keys were unusable as well, considering what those opened. I was pleasantly surprised when my cell turned on after four days of this world. Unfortunately, I had no service (what a surprise) and the battery was almost dead. I might have been able to get one of the Elric brothers to make me some form of charger, but without service the mobile wouldn't do me any good.

Sighing, I placed them all in a pile and leaned back, waiting for someone to come near the door and assist me in my dilemma.

.oOo.

Approximately 4 hours later, Edward realized that he hadn't seen Jack for a while. He then realized that Jack had no clothes, and as such, was probably still sitting in the bathroom. Laughing, he went upstairs to put away his now complete report and gather some of his clothes from the suitcase he stashed inside of Al. The kid was freakishly tall, but other peoples' clothes were better than no clothes.

He grabbed one of the only other outfits he owned (cargo pants and a black tank top) and headed back to the bathroom. Knocking on the door, he called out "Hey, Jack?"

There was a scuffling sound from inside, and the door opened a crack. "Are they done?"

"Nope, but I finally took pity on you and brought some of mine. So here." He shoved the apparel through the door. Nodding his appreciation, Jack turned and closed the door, but not before Ed noticed the glint of something metal near his collarbone.

_Was that.. A necklace? _He thought to himself. Then he shrugged his shoulders. Who was he to complain about someone else's choices in fashion?

.oOo.

After Edward let me borrow some of his clothes, we spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing while waiting for Mrs. Hulling to finish with my actual clothes. I sat down at a table and stared into space, Edward sat down at another table and fiddled with his pocket watch, and I'm pretty sure Alphonse was off playing with Sparta somewhere. By the time she had finished, night was falling. Edward didn't have the 300K that another night would cost us, so we hopped onto the last train out for the night.

"Where are we headed now?" I asked with a yawn.

"Central."

"How long is that gonna take us?"

Edward glanced in my direction. "A little over 30 hours."

My eyes widened and I let out a groan. "Ugh. What I wouldn't give to have an Ipod right now."

Alphonse turned his head in my direction. "An… Ipod? What's that?"

I'm pretty sure I paled a considerable amount. I had to be more careful about what I said to these people, I was from another freaking futuristic dimension! Then again, the chances of them believing me… "It's like a radio, but it's portable, I control the music that comes from it and I can make it so that only I can hear it."

Alphonse's eyes rounded. "A portable radio? Those exist?"

I shrugged nonchalantly. "They do where I come from."

"And where do you come from again?" Edward asked, leaning in. You know, this was looking kind of familiar…

I smirked. "In the kingdom of Far Far Away."

He blinked. "…Really?"

I scoffed. "No, of course not! We've already been through this!"

Edward leaned back in silence. "It was worth a shot…" he grumbled.

Sighing, I leaned back and tried to remember all the good music from back home. It was a long train ride, and that was all that happened on it. Needless to say, I was bored out of my mind.

.oOo.

The girl leaned back and groaned. "He's being so _boring!" _She turned to face her companion. "Truth! Can't I go move things along! They're not doing ANYTHING!"

Her white companion shifted from his perch. "You want to go down there and push him in the right direction?"

"I don't care what direction I push him in!" She snapped angrily, reddish blonde hair flailing. "I just want him to get _moving!" _

Truth sighed. "If it means that much to you, do something small. I don't want you messing around too much in his affairs."

An impish grin appeared on her face. "Small you say? Is a link small enough for your tastes?"

"If you don't interfere much, then yes." The little white creature sounded almost bored. Knowing him, he was bored. Maybe this would keep him amused for a while as well.

Grinning from ear to ear, the girl bounced to the area where she spent most of her time. Then, she began her mental descent into a certain cocky mind.

.oOo.

They were just over 24 hours into the train ride when Jack started. He had been sleeping quite peacefully, remaining silent except to occasionally hum a strange tune that neither Elric brother recognized while he was awake. All of a sudden the boy hissed through his teeth, sat upright on the bench, clutched his forehead, and then proceeded to fall off of the bench, whereupon he smacked his head on the floorboards. Edward suppressed a snicker, while Alphonse leaned over to help him back up.

"Are you alright?" He asked worriedly. He glared over his shoulder. "Stop laughing and help."

Shaking his head, Ed grabbed one of Jack's arms and hoisted him back into an upright position on the bench. Still holding a hand to his head, Jack muttered "Is that normal?"

"Falling out of bed?" Ed responded. "You tell me."

Jack glared at him. "Not that, I mean the exploding freaking head syndrome. Can head injuries like—oh, I don't know, radios falling on your head, hitting your head repeatedly as you tumble down a hill, or just now hitting it on another hard and unforgiving surface—cause random spouts of headache?"

"Well, I know that headaches, interrupted sleep, and fatigue are all symptoms of a concussion." Al interjected. "Maybe you've been a little too rough with your head."

Jack groaned, leaning back. "It's not like I try to put it in harm's way, it just keeps getting bumped! Painfully!"

"I'm surprised the hair doesn't cushion it more." Ed said with a smirk.

Jack blinked, frowning. "Why would it… It's not like I have a 'fro, it's just messy!" he snapped. "And don't even get me started on your hair, Rapunzel."

Al returned to his seat, promptly placing Sparta on his armored lap. "Who?"

Jack waved his free hand. "She lives at the top of a tall tower with no doors and one window. The Princess's hair is a golden braid long enough to touch the ground."

"YOU WANNA GO?" Edward yelled, jumping up. Jack hissed and held his head with both hands.

"Not so loud…" he murmured. "Oww…"

Al sounded worried. "We should get you checked out once we get to Central." He stroked Sparta's ears.

Jack grimaced. "Oh joy. Doctors. From 1914." He leaned back, taking care not to bump his head. "This is going to be just fantastic."

.oOo.

Once they had reached Central City, Alphonse took Jack to see a doctor about his head, while Ed went to see the Colonel. Needless to say, he took the scenic route.

Once he arrived, he quickly said hello to the Bastard's subordinates, then went inside and dropped the file onto his desk with an unceremonious 'splat'. "Here's the review on the Youswell coal mines. Someone's going to have to reorganize the staff there; the Lieutenant in charge was raising taxes and using the money to line his own pockets." He sat down with a huff.

"That must have been an interesting inspection. I can't wait to hear the local gossip from my new girlfriend." Mustang replied, hands clasped under his chin. "And Liore was a bust?"

Edward sighed. "The priest was a phony, and so was his stone." He frowned. "But the power it gave him was real enough. Without the stone he could barely do any alchemy, but with it he transmuted a huge chimera right in front of our eyes. I'm not sure how he did it, though."

The Colonel rummaged around his desk. "It might help if you consulted with a specialist. Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist, created quite the chimera a few years back." He glanced up at Ed. "Who knows, he may even be able to help you somehow get your bodies back."

Edward nodded in thought, then shot up. "Hey, wait a minute! Why are you doing this? You want something, don't you?" He pointed an angry finger at his superior officer.

"Don't get so overworked about it!" Mustang snapped back. "I'm paying you back for taking care of the Liore scandal and Jack. Doing you a favor is better than being indebted to you."

The blonde sat back down. "Yeah, about that kid—"

"Due to your acquaintance with the boy, I'm leaving him in your charge until we can do something about him." The Colonel interrupted. "Find out what you can about who he is and exactly what happened to make him appear in my office of all places. Once we've established that he's not a threat, we will send him off on his merry way."

"So I'm stuck babysitting the kid." Edward growled. "Do you think I have time for that? You know my goal and how important it is that I complete it!"

"And this is an important mission of keeping what could possibly be an enemy close!" Mustang growled right back. "In fact, I'm betting he helped you out somewhat these past few days." The look of annoyance that flitted across his face was proof enough. The dark haired man smirked, then explained "He looked like both a troublemaker and someone who can't sit around and do nothing." He raised a knowing eyebrow. "Kind of like a certain midget subordinate of mine."

After a notable amount of yelling and fist flailing, Edward Elric was calm enough for him to continue. "Speaking of him, what have you discovered about Jack Ryenn?"

Ed crossed his arms. "Aside from the fact that he's nearly impossible to get along with—a feat which only you beat him at, by the way—I know that somehow he saw the Truth. I'm not about to go into depth about what that is, but I know that he only could've seen it through human transmutation." Here Edward frowned. "The thing that troubles me is that he knows absolutely nothing about alchemy, and even seems mildly surprised every time he witnesses it. This makes even less sense because he claims to have the same knowledge that I do about it—once again, because of the Truth—and has yet to perform any himself. He also has all his limbs and internal body parts as far as I can tell, so I can't find the damn equivalence in his trip.

"Which leads me back to what he said on the first day. He explained that the Truth was paying him back for something he was already given, but that can't be it because I still haven't found what Truth initially took from him.

"Then we have the weird words he uses. He has no knowledge of alchemy, but once we mentioned the Philosopher's Stone he seemed to recognize it. He said it was a 'British term', whatever that is. He also knows weird stories that I've never heard of. This should be normal, considering we have no clue where he's from. The thing is, I asked him about where he's from."

"And what did he tell you?" Mustang inquired, leaning forward.

Edward scowled. "Nothing useful. He's from the planet Earth, in the Northwestern hemisphere—and here's the kicker—a continent called 'North America'."

Mustang frowned. "There's no such continent as North America. Which means he was lying to you about that."

Ed's blonde braid bobbed as he shook his head. "That's what I thought at first as well, but now that I think about it, he didn't look like he was lying. There was almost a sadness when he told me that, like he knew that I would never believe what he was saying, even if it was true."

The Colonel snorted. "That kid? Sad? That's not what I remember."

"It was pretty well masked behind his smart-ass mouth and attitude, but it was definitely there." Edward retorted. "I haven't figured out what yet, but there's something about his past that makes him sad. Of course, I'm the first to know that the past can be a dangerous thing to pry into" here he shot Mustang a meaningful look "but we'll probably need to find out what his deal is if we're ever going to get me off of this case."

The Colonel nodded. "So we know he's confused about alchemy and that he has a past. Anything more important?"

Ed shrugged. "Nothing of too much note. He has a gun now, and has a basic knowledge of how to use it, he knows about Al's and my situation, which would be really bad if he turned out to be an enemy, he's convinced he's going to save the world, and that he was sent by God to do so. Sounds like mostly delusional stuff to me. Also, he didn't know I was a part of the military" Mustang raised an eyebrow "or what year it was." His other eyebrow shot up.

"And where is our little mystery now?" he asked, relaxing back into his cushioned chair.

Ed looked away. "With Al, getting his head checked out to see if he has a concussion."

His eyes narrowed. "Why would he have a concussion?"

"Several bumps to the head, interrupted sleep, and what seems to be quite the headache." Edward responded.

Sighing, Mustang pushed himself up from his chair. "Not even a full week with you two and he's already at the hospital. Must be a new personal best."

"The head trauma was not my fault!" Ed snapped, also rising from the couch. "Granted, I probably didn't help, but it still wasn't caused by me!"

"Mhmm, sure it wasn't." The Colonel said as he led Edward out of his office. "You go fetch your brother and your charge, I'll call Mr. Tucker and see if we can get you to meet him later today."

Grumbling all the way, Edward Elric trudged towards the hospital.

.oOo.

At least, he was planning on going to the hospital. Turns out he didn't need to walk quite that far.

"So, Riza—can I call you Riza?"

"No."

"So Riza, have you ever just sat there and looked at your eyes?"

"No I haven't, and please don't call me Riza."

"That's a shame." Here Jack smiled, showing teeth that weren't that blinding before. "You've got really pretty eyes. A nice chocolate. Sweet, you know?"

"I'm afraid I don't like sweets very much."

"What about honey? Honey is sweet, but it's not _a _sweet. Like your hair. It's a nice honey blonde, and it goes great with your chocolate eyes." There was another smile.

"Thank you for the compliment, it was very thoughtful of you. Now, if you'll excuse me, there is some paperwork—"

"Do you have to go?" And there go the puppy dog eyes. Alphonse's were better. "I'd much rather you stayed here and continued to chat with me."

Hawkeye finally looked at Jack. She smirked. "Have you _seen _the mountain over there? If I don't go work on it now, we'll be stuck without a Colonel until I dig him out." And with that, she turned on her heel and marched into the Bastard's office.

Jack grinned at Ed. "I think that went well."

Ed snorted, walking towards him. "No it didn't. She blew you off, she's out of your league, she's too old for you, which isn't saying much, AND—now don't hold me to this one just yet—she has eyes for someone else."

"But she smiled at me!" Jack protested. "If they smile back it means they're interested!"

"That was a smirk." Edward crossed his arms. "Which means she thinks you're an idiot. Now let's go, the Bastard is taking us to see a bioalchemy specialist."

"Really?" Al said as they walked. "That's so nice of him! What's his reasoning?"

Ed shrugged. "He'd rather do us a favor than be in our debt."

"Why bioalchemy?" Jack questioned, holding an ice pack to his head.

"To see if it could help us with our problem." Ed replied, casting a furtive glance around. "How's your head?"

Jack shrugged. "Still hurts like hell. I've got this handy-dandy ice pack, some pain killers, and I'm supposed to avoid sudden changes in light and loud sounds for the next month or so. Yippee."

"So let him take it easy, Brother." Al interjected.

They stood outside waiting for Mustang for about 12 minutes. Jack kept on fiddling with some rectangle in his pocket. He would take it out, scowl at whatever he was looking at, then place it in his back pocket. "What's that in your pocket?" Edward asked once they were seated.

"I'll show you later." Jack responded, propping his chin in his hand and gazing out the window.

"Show us what later?" Bastard McUndonePants asked.

"The thing I'm sitting on." Jack responded emotionlessly. "So who is this guy we're meeting?"

The Colonel started reading through his file. "Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist. Two years ago, he made a chimera that could understand human speech."

Jack sat upright and Alphonse gasped. "Really? You mean it could talk? A _chimera?" _Ed asked excitedly.

"Supposedly." He responded, glancing back down at his folder. "It only said one thing, though. '_I want to die.' _After that, it refused to eat until it got its wish."

Edward leaned back, and Jack and Alphonse resumed their previous positions. It was a rather depressing bit of news, amazing as it was.

.oOo.

We arrived at the Tucker family home shortly after that. Well I don't think 'home' is quite a strong enough word for it. The place was freaking HUGE! I could have fit at least four of my houses in there.

Mustang rang the bell by the front door, and Edward looked up in awe. "Woah… this place is enormous!" _I couldn't have said is better myself. _Just then, a shadow seemed to fly over his face. "GYAAAH!"

I winced at the sudden loud noise, though I will be the first to admit that having an extremely large dog tackle you is as good a reason as any to cry out. Moments later, the front door opened, being held by a little girl with big blue eyes and brown hair in twin braids. "Look Daddy, there are people outside!"

"Nina," a man with thinning hair and glasses stood behind her, "this is why I told you to keep the dog tied up." He led us inside the massive building and seated us at a long table. For such a grand looking house, it sure was dirty.

"I'm sorry about the mess," Tucker said as he seated himself. "Ever since my wife ran out things have just been falling to pieces."

"When'd she leave?" I questioned, still looking around at the dishes in the sink and the web covered books in the corner. Al elbowed me in the gut, which I guess I deserved.

Tucker sighed. "It's been about two years now." He smiled sadly. "But back to happier matters. You must be Edward Elric. As I'm sure the Colonel told you, I'm the Sewing-Life Alchemist, Shou Tucker. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Ed is interested in the field of biologic alchemy." Mustang interjected. "He'd like to take a look at your research, if that's alright." These people just gave out their research to whoever asked?

"Of course, I don't mind." Tucker responded. "But" _ah, there it is,_ "if you want me to show you what I've got up my sleeve, it's only fair you show me what you've got up yours. It's the law we live by, equivalent trade." _Hah! So I'm not the only one who does that?_

The Colonel tried to save his hide, but Edward interrupted him and told the story of how they transmuted their mother. I'm sure they told him the abridged version, seeing as how I knew a tad bit more than Tucker now did, but it was their story to tell, and I had no business adding information.

"I see. You've had a rough time of it then, and at such a young age." Tucker turned to me. "And what about you?"

I shrugged. "What you see is what you get. I won't look into your business if you don't look into mine." I had no particular interest in Tucker's research, and I wasn't about to tell him anything about my past.

"Hmm, I see." Tucker nodded his head. "Well, I'm not sure how much good it will do for you, but you're welcome to look through my research laboratory." He stood up and led the way to a large room filled with jars of… pickled this, frozen that, and some samples that looked disturbingly… fresh. There were also some cages filled with chimeras that could have been part of a science exhibit. _Oh wait… _

"This is my study. It's kind of embarrassing, actually." He led the way through to another room, this one completely filled with books. "And this is the library. Feel free to use whatever materials you need."

Edward grinned. "Alright Al! I'll start with this shelf!" He grabbed a random tome and started reading at lightning speed. Alphonse grabbed a book from a notably higher shelf and also began to read.

"I'll send someone to get you at the end of the day." Mustang told them, although they were either ignoring him or too engrossed in their books to notice.

"That's quite an ability to focus." Tucker noted. He fixed his glasses. "A couple of prodigies, those two." There was an undertone to his voice that I didn't quite catch. It may have been… resentment? Eh, whatever. It would come to me later.

Sensing an opportunity for a private conversation, I followed Mustang from the room. "Colonel," I called. He turned around, glancing at me with raised eyebrows. "I was wondering if I could ask you some questions?"

"Questions you can't ask the Elric brothers?" He responded coldly.

"Well, I could ask, but I doubt they'd answer me until next week…"

He nodded. "I suppose you're right. Come, step outside with me." He opened the door and walked out, closing it behind me. "Now, what do you want?"

"I'm curious about the Fuhrer of this country." I responded. "Back home we have a President and some other old guys who like to argue a lot."

"…I see." He responded. "Depending on what it is you want to know, I may or may not answer you."

I nodded, "That's understandable. So tell me, is he quick to act during times of war?"

Judging from his suddenly darker expression, the Colonel had seen more than his share of war. "Yes, he's very strong in that aspect."

"Did he ever nearly wipe out a race of people?" I asked. I knew this one was getting kind of close for comfort, but it was important to know!

Mustang scowled. "Yes. A few years back there was a civil uprising in what used to be Ishval. Now it's just desert."

I looked down. "I'm sorry to hear that. Civil wars are always the worst. And now: my last question." I looked him in the eye, my essence the exact picture of seriousness. "Does he have a very distinguished mustache?"

He blinked, clearly not expecting that last one. "…Yes, I suppose it is a very nice mustache…"

"Thank you, that's all I need to know." I turned to walk away, when—

"Hold it."

I turned my head around. "Yes?"

He smirked. It looked natural on his face, like he tended to smirk A LOT. "Now it's my turn. Equivalent exchange. I get to ask you three questions."

I swore under my breath. I was hoping he wouldn't call me out on that! Sighing, I turned to face him again. "Alright, shoot."

"What are you doing in this country?"

I returned the facial gesture. "I'm here to save the world. But you already knew that, so it was a waste of a question. Next."

He frowned, then asked something I was NOT expecting. "Do your parents know you're here?"

I grimaced. My _parents… _How do you forget about that? They're your PARENTS! I mean, sure, we fought sometimes (what teen doesn't?) but I still loved them. And I would probably never see them again. _Oh well, that's what happens when you die, I guess. _

"They don't, and they never will." I responded. Damn it, I don't think I controlled my facial expressions just then, he probably figured out something from that…

"And why is that?" He asked, still pressing the parent thing. Yeah, he definitely saw something he could grab onto there.

I smirked inwardly. _Might as well talk in circles. _"Because I died before I came here. Thank you for your time, I'll see you later, I'm sure." I turned and walked back inside the mansion, passing Nina on the way there. She looked decidedly bored, sitting there all by herself. I thought back to my days as a kid. Being an only child, I spent a notable amount of time wishing I had somebody to talk to. Sighing, I went over and sat down next to her.

"What's up?" I asked, leaning my head back against the wall.

She pouted. "Alexander is sleeping, Daddy is working and Big Brothers are reading. There's no one to play with me!"

I made a face. "What, I can't play with you?"

She made a face back. "You don't look like any fun."

I grinned. "I don't look like any fun! Don't be silly! Let's play some games together!"

Her face lit up like it was Christmas. "Okay!" That was how we spent the afternoon. However, despite the distraction of fun and games, my mind kept wandering to Mr. Tucker, and the strange vibe I was getting from the things he had said today.

.oOo.

Havoc had come to retrieve them, but Ed and Al barely looked up from their books. They had only managed to get through three bookcases between the two of them, barely scratching the vast library's surface. Luckily, Tucker invited them to return again tomorrow.

As the four of them walked out the door, Havoc turned to face Mr. Tucker. "Oh, I almost forgot! The Colonel told me to remind you that inspection day is coming up!"

Tucker nodded solemnly. "Yes. Please assure him, I am aware." He closed the door firmly between them. Ed glanced over to Jack, noticing his frown.

"What've you been up to all day?" He questioned, just now realizing that he had completely forgotten about the maggot.

Jack blinked and glanced up. "I've been playing with Nina." He smiled sadly. "It gets boring, being an only child." He looked towards the door and frowned again.

Stepping into the car, Ed internally smiled. _So he does care about other people. _"How did your search go?" Jack asked in return, holding a refreshed ice pack to his head.

Ed sighed, sinking into the leather of the military vehicle. "Not so well. There was a great deal of information on chimeras and the theory behind them, but nothing that could really help us with our problem. Well, nothing yet. We only managed to scratch the surface of that library."

They drove the rest of the way in silence, passing building after building until they had reached a nearby inn. Stepping out of the car, Jack appraised the building, still frowning like nobody's business.

Sighing, Ed turned to him. "Alright, what's up?"

Pale eyes blinked. "Huh?"

"You've been frowning since we left." Edward persisted. "What's up?"

Jack smirked, looking back at him. "Aw, so you do care." His face became serious again. "I don't know what it is yet, but something is definitely off about Tucker."

Ed snorted. "Something's off about you, too. Doesn't mean I go around frowning at everything I see."

Jack shook his head, then winced and readjusted his ice pack. "You're not getting it… You know that feeling you get when you're watching a scary movie and you just know that something bad is about to happen?"

_Scary movie? I haven't seen any movies since we were kids… "_No…"

Jack scowled in thought. Then, with shocking speed, he took his hand and jabbed it into Ed's stomach.

"_Oof. _Hey! What was that—"

"That feeling in your gut, right now!" Jack interrupted, his face the picture of importance. "That unsettling, lingering sensation. Tucker gives me that feeling, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why!"

Rubbing his stomach, Ed glared at him. "Shou Tucker is a perfectly normal guy." Brushing himself off, he continued "I'm going to assume that anything else you say on the matter is the concussion talking. Now let's get some rest." With that, he stomped into the building.

Glancing between the two, Alphonse sighed. "This is going to be problematic…"

.oOo.

The next day followed generally the same way. We left for Tucker's place, the brothers did their research, and I played with Nina and Alexander. Tucker remained out of sight, and everything went as it normally would. But I still couldn't figure out why Tucker was giving me such bad vibes. Later on that day, we all sat down at a table and talked. Tucker described the poor living conditions they had before he became a state alchemist.

"My wife couldn't stand living like that, and so she left. Ironically enough, it was just after that that I became a state alchemist." He sighed. "Last year, I didn't do very well on my exams. I'm afraid that if I don't get good marks this year, we'll go back to living like that. I don't know what I would do."

"Don't worry, Daddy!" Nina turned around from where she had been stroking Alexander. "Even if they say 'no', me and Alexander will growl at them until they say 'yes'!" She smiled, pleased with her plan.

Alphonse laughed. "You tell 'em, Nina!" It sounded like he was smiling.

Mr. Tucker looked at his daughter in thought. Then he smiled. "Hey Nina, I've got an idea. Why don't you play with Daddy tomorrow?"

Nina's face lit up and a wide grin broke out on her face. "Really? You mean it?"

"Yeah." He answered with a smile. Then his eyes widened in surprise when Nina jumped into his arms, calling out an excited 'woohoo!'

Edward smiled at them, and they looked happy enough. But something still felt off to me.

We arrived at the inn, and I just stared at the ceiling, thinking about Tucker and everything I knew about him.

Shou Tucker is a state alchemist. He had a wife, but she left him due to living conditions, and has a daughter and a dog. He and his family live very well off now because he is a state alchemist. State alchemists have to take an annual test to keep their license. Tucker did not do well last year. To become a state alchemist, he presented a talking chimera. Judging by Ed's reaction and the only other chimera I've ever seen, that was quite a feat.

How would one go about making a talking chimera? Monkeys are supposed to be the closest things to humans as far as animals go, but I'd never heard of a talking monkey before. Parrots could be trained to talk, but they only repeated what they heard, not actually talked. Perhaps with the vocals of the parrot and the brains of a monkey? But what gave parrots the ability to talk anyways?

I groaned, rubbing my temples. It would be so much easier if you could just start out with something that could already talk!

I froze.

_When'd she leave? _

_Tucker smiled sadly. "It's been about two years now."_

_Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist. Two years ago, he made a chimera that could understand human speech._

_It only said one thing, though. 'I want to die.'_

Shou Tucker… had used his own wife… the woman he loved and had married and even had a freaking kid with… he used his wife to become a state alchemist. Turned her into his lab rat and made her into a chimera. What kind of sick, demented bastard would do that to a person?

_I'm afraid that if I don't get good marks this year, we'll go back to living like that. I don't know what I would do._

_Hey Nina, I've got an idea. Why don't you play with Daddy tomorrow?_

Oh my God. Nina!

Without thinking, I jumped out of bed. My head pounded at the sudden change, but right then I couldn't have cared less. Innocent little Nina, who couldn't have been older than five, was in danger. And from her own father! I ran out of my room and down the stairs, not even bothering to put on shoes. My bare feet pounded on the ground. Somewhere behind me, one of the Elric brothers was shouting at me to stop. Normally I would have, but there wasn't any time. I had to get Nina out of that house!

Without even knowing the way to her house, my feet carried me there. I bolted to the front door, completely hurtling the stairs, and tried wrench open the door.

_Locked._

Frantically, I looked around for an open window. The windows themselves weren't open, but there was a conveniently sized rock on the grass that was just begging to be thrown. Taking it in my fist, I hurled it as hard as I could at the window, creating a rock sized hole. I quickly shoved aside the broken glass and made the hole large enough to crawl through, then pulled myself onto the ledge. I had probably woken up several people with that crash, but it couldn't be helped now.

I stepped onto the floor, my feet getting cut to shreds by the broken glass. But it didn't matter, Nina was in danger. I quickly bolted from room to room, searching for the little girl. But I couldn't find her anywhere in the massive house! Finally, I spotted a door that was suspiciously ajar. Not even thinking, I sprinted into the room, the heavy wood crashing on the opposing wall.

What I saw was both reassuring and terrifying.

Nina and Alexander were sitting huddled together on what must have been the largest transmutation circle I'd ever seen. The two appeared to have been sleeping before, though my crashing through the door had woken them up. Tucker was kneeling by the circle, glasses askew and hands raised for the morbid deed. He looked at me in surprise. Then, seeming to understand that I had figured him out, he lunged for me. I quickly ran to the side, crashing into a shelf of animal bits. Tucker turned and lunged at me again.

"Run!" I yelled at Nina, praying to whatever God they had in this world, be it the little white guy or a more generous one, that she would make it out ok. But she wasn't moving, Nina just sat there, frozen in fear. Growling, I turned to face Tucker, who was panting a few feet away.

"You damn brat." He snarled. "How did you figure it out?"

"I've gotta say…" I panted, "for someone revered… for being an intelligent soul, you sure suck… at covering your tracks." I slowly extended the hand that was closest to the wall, hoping to find a weapon. "Next time you do something diabolical; make sure the dates don't match up!"

Tucker slowly smiled. "Yes, it was rather annoying that you discovered my secret…" _Sure, ignore my jab at your intellect. There goes that plan. _"…but now I've got someone better for my chimera!"

I glared at the man across from me, hoping some ingenious plan would come to mind. Naturally, I had run in to save the maiden without thinking first. "Oh yeah? And who could that be?"

Tucker's glasses slipped. I could see his wide, crazed eyes now. "Such a young mind would have retained more of its integrity. An older mind like your own would be much less likely to spill my secret once its lost its ability to condemn me!"

"Really?" I mused, still searching for an escape. "And how would you make me lose my ability to throw you in jail forever?"

Something flashed behind Tucker's shoulder. This time, I controlled my facial expressions. "When an intelligent mind such as yourself is combined with a less intelligent mind, the two merge, and the smarter of the two drops to the brink of insanity!" He laughed maniacally. "You get to keep the ever important ability to talk, but lose the wits to condemn me! It's perfect!"

Relaxing my stance, I slowly clapped my hands, nodding my approval. "Bravo! You've really outdone yourself this time, Shou. A true genius, this guy." Then I cocked my head, musing. "You forgot one thing, though…"

Tucker's face dropped. "And what could that possibly be?"

I grinned my signature 'I have something evil planned' grin. "Zay 'ello to my leetle friend!"

_Clank!_

Edward's fist came crashing down on Tucker's unsuspecting head, knocking him out cold. Then with a huff, the pissed blonde ran over to me and began his rant.

"What the HELL were you thinking?!" He shouted in my face. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to find you once you ran off? Or what would have happened had we not gotten here in time?"

"We?" I turned around and saw Alphonse comforting Nina, who was now crying shamelessly. "Oh, hey there."

"You're such an idiot! What were you planning on doing?! Letting him turn you into a chimera?" Ed was still seriously pissed off.

I shrugged. "I was winging it. Thanks for the help though!" I grinned, earning me an automail fist in the gut.

I grunted. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Why didn't you bring us with you?" He asked, somewhat calmer.

"It would've taken too long." I wheezed. "You were convinced Tucker was a perfectly normal guy, and I barely made it here in time as it is! If I hadn't come when I did, Nina would be a monster right now!" I huffed. "I hope you two are grateful."

The sound of military people could be heard from outside. With a sigh, I began the painful trek to the front door, leaving the Elric brothers to handle the mess behind me. Now that the adrenaline had run out, I could feel all the cuts on my feet and the pounding in my head. Giving myself a thumbs up, I collapsed into a nearby chair.

"Mission accomplished."

**Woot! Finally finished this thing. It's been a pain since I started writing it. It also would have been out sooner, had I not gotten a concussion. Long story short, I was skiing, the tips of my skis went under the snow, I was sent flying and landed on my face. This was on Sunday. I'm fine now, though! Well, as fine as you can be when concussed.**

**Anyway, that's that. Jack saved Nina! We'll see how this affects the story in the next chapter. (which is only episode 5… It feels so much further than that though!)**

**Oh, and the accent at the end is my attempt at French. I was typing it and saying it aloud, and it just had to sound like that…**

**So uh, maybe I'll get more reviews this time? Like, past today/tomorrow? Thanks **


	8. Chapter 8

**Warning: a character you sorta know goes on a bit of a rage spree and… ahem, yeah. **

**Summary: They've been to Liore, Youswell, and done the Tucker incident. But Jack saved Nina! Which may or may not have changed some stuff… teehee.**

.oOo.

"I already said, I had a hunch!" Jack huffed angrily, crossing his arms.

They were in a rather bleak hospital room, standing around the lone occupied bed. A scent of disturbing cleanliness hung in the air and the light from the windows was nearly blinding. But none of that mattered to the very pissed off Flame Alchemist, who was glaring at the inhabitant of the boring room.

"Well then explain it to me!" He snapped angrily. "How could you possibly have known about what was going to happen?"

"I had. A theory." Jack started again, very slowly. "And then. I followed it. And I was proved right. I see no need to delve into this any further." He made a face. "Besides, why do you care _how _I came to the conclusion? I saved Nina, shouldn't that be what you're focusing on? Speaking of, what's going to happen to her now? She doesn't exactly have a family to take her in…"

Mustang pinched the bridge of his nose. "She's going into foster care until we can figure out something better. Now tell me how you reckoned that Shou Tucker was going to use his daughter to make another chimera."

"Still don't see why you need to know…" A growl from Mustang had him raising his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. I was wondering about that chimera he made. Eventually I got bored and realized it would be easier to just start with something that could talk. Badda-bing, badda-boom, one shocking theory clicked into place." Jack turned his head pointedly away. "Happy now?"

Mustang furrowed his brows. "Not really, but I suppose it's as good as I'll get from a kid like you."

"Hey! Who are you calling a kid, wrinkles?" Jack snapped back.

"Perhaps the concussed child before me with the marred feet!" He replied hotly. "And I'll let you know I am _not _wrinkly!"

"And _I'll _let _you _know that I'm not concussed anymore!"

He scowled at the insolent brat before him. "Nobody heals from a concussion that quickly!"

"Well _apparently _I do, because the doctor has cleared me for the concussion!" said insolent brat barked. "And as soon as my feet are better, I am leaving this darn hospital!"

"You'll leave when I say you can leave!"

"I'll leave when I freaking feel like it!"

They glared at each other for a good minute, dark eyes meeting light in a head-to-head fight for the upper hand. Finally, Mustang decided to change the subject. "Why were you so interested in the Fuhrer before?"

Jack scowled. "Checking up on another hunch."

The Colonel raised a perfect eyebrow. "Care to let me in on this one before you go and nearly get yourself killed again?"

He mirrored the gesture. "And let you report it to the man himself? I think not." He turned his face away from the light. "Besides, I'm not about to go trusting some old geezer who doesn't trust me back." There was that cocky smile again. "Equivalent exchange, right?"

Irritated beyond his limit, Mustang turned on his heel and started walking away. "You can hold this information for now, but know that I _will _find out soon."

Jack snorted. "Yeah, when I feel like freaking explaining it to you."

Growling, the Colonel left the room in a huff, his trusty Lieutenant following a step behind. That kid needed to learn a little something about respecting those above him. Given, he wasn't a part of the military, so he couldn't just have the nuisance court marshaled for insubordination, but something had to be done about him!

As he stormed the halls, he caught sight of his face in the reflection of a window. He stopped and stared at his face for a minute before unfurrowing his brows and continuing his trek. _And I am NOT wrinkly!_

.oOo.

They were sitting at the base of some fountain, brother with his head in his hands. This had to have been the worst Al had ever seen him, aside from… that day when they were kids.

"I can't believe I didn't see it sooner, Al." He sighed into his hands. "I didn't see it at all until it was right there in front of me. And I wouldn't have gotten there at all if Jack-the-freaking-savior hadn't run out in the middle of the night."

Brother slapped his hands against the ledge. "We never would have gotten there in time! If it weren't for Jack, we would have showed up there this morning and found her there as… as a damn chimera! And then her life would have been almost over anyways! There wouldn't have been anything we could do for her after that!" He leaned back and stared at the darkening clouds above them. "We couldn't even save one little girl on our own. What good are we if we can't even manage that one?"

"It doesn't matter that we didn't save her by ourselves." Al replied quietly. "What matters is that we _did _get there in time and that she _is _going to have a life now because of it. We saved her, Ed, even if we had help. You should stop wasting away in what would have been and just keep moving forward."

He shook his head, golden hair swaying. "Yeah, but I can't just forget that if he hadn't been there, she would be—"

"You are Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, yes?" A deep voice questioned from beside them. Ed looked up with sad, tired eyes at the dark skinned man.

"Yeah, what of it?" He replied, sounding like he didn't care for anything at the moment.

The man, who Al noticed had an 'X' shaped scar on his forehead, reared back a hand to attack. But Ed wasn't moving! Without thinking, Al grabbed his brother's shoulder and yanked him out of harm's way. "Brother!"

And not a moment too soon. The ledge of the fountain that they had been sitting on just seconds before had exploded into rubble upon contact. But the man still stood, and he still looked like he was going to attack. Taking in the moment, Ed snapped out of his stupor. "Run!" He shouted as they turned and booked it to anywhere-but-there.

.oOo.

I glared at the wall, angry with my circumstances. I was just about alone in this mini Germany, and had to save everyone from mini Hitler. Which was certainly going to be a feat, especially in a world with the fabled 'alchemy'. A technique which I doubted I could do, given I didn't understand chemistry _at all. _In addition to the task I had accepted from the bastard, I had to put up with Mustang prying into my business all the tame. Granted, I probably shouldn't have tempted him with the information during our first meeting, but that was before I knew the guy was such a pesky dick! I could reason with Edward a lot better in that aspect now.

Speaking of Edward, I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do with the guy. He seemed to get into enough business where I could tell he was kinda important, but I didn't see how that would help me overthrow the Fuhrer. And I couldn't do anything until my feet healed up more. They felt fine for now, but I knew I shouldn't push them, due to the plethora of cuts from the window I had broken getting into the Tucker estate.

I could always escape from the hospital now… the doctors would hardly be expecting a kid with feet this badly injured to go running around on his own. It would really only take running below the horizon of the windows on my first-floor room, and leaving my escape window open for a quick return later. They would hardly miss—

_BOOM!_

An explosion sounded from somewhere surprisingly close to me. Grinning at the distraction's perfect timing, I quickly shoved on my sneakers and made my way out the window, being sure to leave it open enough to pry open later. I landed on the ground with a soft oof, barely noticing the slight sting of my bandaged feet. I made my way across to the road like a stealthy ninja, and then ran in the general direction of the explosion.

As I ran toward the billowing smoke, a piano rendition of the theme from _Pirates of the Caribbean _started playing in my head. My grin grew even wider. Finally! Some decent background music! I continued on my jog through the city, idly wondering what I was going to do once I actually got there. Me being me, I hadn't actually thought about the reason _why_ I wanted to get out of the hospital, just that I had to get out of the white room of cleanliness. Maybe it was because Mustang had implied he controlled when I could leave, and that he would eventually find out everything about me. Which was complete bull, that jerk would only find out as much as I wanted him to, and only when I decided I would tell him. He could just stick his nose somewhere el—

**FUCK!**

The sudden outburst had come after a horrendously wrong chord on the piano, which had caused me to jump a good two feet in the air. _What the heck? That wasn't… I didn't…_

**Always that chord! **The voice continued. At this point I had stopped running and stood in front of a very confused vendor, wondering exactly what the hell was going on. **Always that fucking chord! Damn it all to hell, why are my hands so small?!**

_I don't have small—_

**I can reach an octave just fine!**

_-What the hell are you—_

**Even with the stupid notes in between the octave—**

_-These aren't my thoughts—_

**-I can reach the damn thing just fine!—**

_-Is there someone in my—_

**-But then the damn composers had to make that fucking chord—**

_-This is starting to freak me—_

**-Just a LITTLE BIT LONGER than an octave!—**

_-Are you even listening to—_

**-And that just takes my beautiful playing—**

_Seriously lost here…_

**- And SMASHES IT ALL TO HELL!**

_Well, not that I could tell, but—_

**This song always sounds so good, and then I reach that one part, and—**

_WILL YOU SHUT THE HEL UP?! _I snapped at my own head, desperately trying to get the voice to stop yelling at me. _Who are you and how did you get inside of my HEAD?!_

There was a pregnant pause, and I almost thought I had made the whole argument up, when the voice responded, much quieter now.

**Oh shit, you heard me? **Now that I could think clearly, the voice sounded kinda…female. Like I had a girl living inside my head. Which was definitely a new experience.

_Yes I heard you, you were screaming inside my head! _I snapped back. At my own head. Which was such a WEIRD feeling…

**Oh… Sorry 'bout that… You weren't supposed to find out I was here…**

_Yeah, but I did find out! And you never answered my question! _

**Which was…**

_Who ARE you and how did you get INSIDE MY HEAD?!_

**Oh, that. Well, I established an empathy link—sorry, a sort of telepathy brain connection—with you about… three nights ago? I don't remember exactly, you were on the train…**

I blinked. There had been some chick in my head for three days, and I had failed to notice? Speaking of… _You still haven't told me WHO you are._

**That's right, I haven't, **she murmured. **But you already know I'm here, and then there's the matter of you having my… but he said that was ok… Uh… It's a secret!**

…_a secret?_

**Yeah! I can't tell you who I am just yet because it's a secret!**

_But don't I get to know who else is inhabiting my body?_

**Just your mind, dearie, I'm not that cruel. And you do, just not quite yet. That would completely defeat the purpose!**

Just then, I heard Ed's voice calling out "—be trying to _kill _me!" It sounded like he was relatively close, just a street or so over.

**You know, **the girl's voice began, **you seem kinda busy. I'll just let you get back to what you were doing before… Do you still want background music?**

Shaking my head, I started walking again. _Nothing that will make you start yelling in my head. As awesome as that was, this seems relatively important._

**You got it! **She sounded so happy. As my pace quickened back into a run, a new piano song started up again, this one much slower, which almost seemed counterintuitive, given that I was sprinting towards the scene of an explosion.

_Inception?_

**Always.**

.oOo.

I arrived at the scene of the action not long after another explosion. In fact, I would have run right by it had I not been nearly impaled by bits of exploding armor.

"AL!" Ed cried in surprise. I looked over my right shoulder, skidding to a halt. They were in what could have been an alley, but was more likely a side street. Well, it _was _a side street, before the other opening collapsed in a mountain of building corners and bricks. Alphonse's armor had a giant gaping hole in the side, little pieces just about everywhere else. Ed had what looked like a tricked out pirate sword in his hand, and was facing off against a buff dark skinned guy wearing an awesome tan jacket and sunglasses, despite the drizzling rain and utter _lack of sun. _He also just so happened to have a big scar on his forehead. Maybe he was a Harry Potter fan or something.

With a growl of frustration, Ed lunged at the guy. The man, whom I had dubbed 'HP', quickly dodged to the side, taunting "too slow!" He grabbed Ed's robot arm and there was what sounded like one of those transfiguration thingies, but no flash of light. The pirate sword flew in my direction, forcing me to leap to the side. Startled, HP let go of his arm as Ed stumbled back, ripping off his coat for some reason.

"A steel prosthetic." HP said to himself. "That would explain why it didn't work."

Glaring daggers at the man, Ed clapped his hands and formed a metal blade out of the forearm plate of his automail. Taking his cue, I grabbed the fallen pirate sword. HP looked at him for a moment before stating, "You use your arms to create a circle, then transmute." He started walking towards the midget. "I'll simply have to destroy that right arm of yours!"

Being the complete moron he is, Ed chose that moment to lunge in for another attack instead of running away. Moving at a rather remarkable speed, HP placed one hand on Ed's wrist and another one his shoulder. _Oh shit, Ed!_ I stumbled forward, sword raised, but it didn't matter.

_Shpoof!_

Ed's arm became a mess of wires, steel, and other obscure mechanical bits. He fell to the ground, a couple stray wires and a metal circle the only remaining sign that his shoulder sported an arm. Completely ignoring all the advice I had ever yelled at an action movie, (don't yell out _before _you attack! That tells them _exactly _where you are!) I swung out with a cry.

Now, similar to the gun, which I just remembered was in the waist of my pants, I had no experience with swords. Which meant that while swinging a sharp object at HP was certainly buying us time, it wasn't effective at all. The two of us were basically circling each other.

"Brother, RUN AWAY!" Alphonse cried from his crumpled state. While Ed and I had been doing our things, Al had been struggling to get up with one leg and half a chest plate. Unfortunately, this distracted me just enough for HP to grab my sword and explode it in my hands.

The force blew me backwards into the side of a building, and I hit my head. _Dear God, I had better not have another freaking concussion._

**You're fine, just pretend to be out and watch the show. **The girl in my head suddenly reappeared. I idly noticed that her piano solo had stopped a while back, but I hadn't realized it.

Ed and HP started going back and forth about stuff like 'god' and 'heretics' and 'justice' and a bunch of crap that I didn't buy at all. I mean, come on, Sunday was _yesterday. _Whatever, the gist of the story was that HP was going around killing alchemists for defying nature.

"And what about my brother?" Ed asked angrily. "And Jack? Are you going to kill them, too?"

HP jutted his chin. "I am only here to kill you today, state alchemist. However, should they interfere again I will have no choice but to kill them."

Edward nodded slowly, as if that made everything OK. And it made me mad! It would NOT be OK if he just up and died, leaving a little brother behind. Pissed off beyond belief, I pulled the gun out of my pants and fired in their general direction.

"You DUMBASS!" I shouted, stumbling to my feet. "That is NOT what you do when you face death! You get your ass off the ground, you stand up, and you FIGHT UNTIL THE END!"

HP turned around in surprise, but I wasn't done yet. "Take it from someone who has died once already," I continued, "it is NOT fun! It hurts like a bitch and in the end nobody wins. And you leave people behind." I waved my gun behind me in Al's general direction. "You have a BROTHER dammit. A little brother who loves you and relies on you more than you could ever know. And you would just LEAVE HIM like that? What about your quest? What about your bodies?" He was still just sitting on the ground, staring at me in shock. "I SAID GET _UP!" _I grabbed his left arm, HP having moved back a bit.

"Now," I placed a hand on each shoulder, careful not to let the gun go off. "You go over there and NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN OR I SWEAR TO EVERY GOD OUT THERE I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF!" I shoved him back with an enraged huff.

"I couldn't have said it better myself."

I blinked, looking over my shoulder. Sometime during my fury, a boat load of military peeps had blocked off the road. Mustang was putting on a pair of gloves and slowly walking towards us. "Now stand down, Scar, you're under arrest for the murder of twelve citizens."

HP, who was apparently Scar now (my name was better), seemed to consider Mustang's offer for a moment. "…Are you by chance the Flame Alchemist, Roy Mustang?"

He smirked. "So you know who I am."

"God has blessed me indeed for putting you in my path today." Scar started towards him.

"If a fight is what you want then a fight is what you'll get!" Mustang moved his hand forward, like that would do anything substantial when two things happened.

Hawkeye, bless her beautiful soul, lunged forward with guns trained on Scar. Scar, that ass, lunged his hand towards Mustang's face. Just as the Colonel snapped his fingers, a pathetic puff of smoke flew from his gloves and Hawkeye kicked his legs out from under him. Mustang fell on his butt (ha) and Riza started shooting at Scar. Scar, being the pro he is, somehow dodged every bullet.

"Hawkeye, what the hell?!" Mustang snapped from the ground.

The Lieutenant cocked her gun. "Sir, you know as well as I do that you're useless on rainy days!"

Mustang flinched at the word 'useless', while some blonde smoking guy held out a hand and noted "oh yeah, 's kinda hard to create a spark in the rain."

And all the while, we had just been standing there. Shaking my head, I grabbed Ed's arm and yanked him towards the uniforms. He still seemed to be in a daze, so he stumbled with me until we were safe behind the line of weapons.

_Another _explosion cut off whatever conversation the military was having with Scar as the tallest, most buff muscle man I had EVER seen threw a punch. The newcomer had to be as tall as Alphonse, so seven feet, and was bald except for one little curl of blonde hair on his forehead. He also had an impressive Mario mustache and some awesome… I think the term is gauntlets? Yeah, some awesome gauntlets on his hands.

"…ALEX LOUIS ARMSTRONG, THE STRONG ARM ALCHEMIST!" The guy announced his title, and for some reason ripped off his military jacket and shirt, revealing even more toned muscles and… were those… pink sparkles?

Armstrong picked up some rubble and threw it at Scar, where it changed into arrowheads through an alchemy technique which had been "passed down the Armstrong line FOR GENERATIONS!"

Scar merely stuck his hand out, catching the arrowhead and blowing it up before it could do any substantial damage.

"I don't get it." I complained. "How is he _doing _that?"

"…Stops at stage two…" Ed mumbled beside me.

I blinked. _At stage… OH! _I remembered the way Alphonse had explained alchemy to me earlier, and that there were three stages in the process. You understood what you were doing, you broke it down, and then you built it back up. "So this guy just deconstructs… using the same alchemy that he wants to kill you for?" I looked at Ed confused. He just shrugged in response. "You darn hypocrite!" I yelled out to Scar.

Hawkeye chose that moment to start shooting again. Most of them missed, but one of them grazed Scar's head, knocking off his glasses.

That was when I saw them. _Red eyes and white hair…_

"You're an albino!" I shouted, right as Mustang cried "He's an Ishvalan!"

We blinked at each other. "…huh?" I ventured.

Just then, there was ANOTHER explosion. After the dust had cleared, all that remained of the battle was Armstrong and a hole into what appeared to be the sewer system. Mustang growled under his breath and started issuing orders when a guy popped out from behind the 'splatter zone'.

"Oh, is the fighting over now?" He had black hair that was slicked back and a stubbly beard. His eyes were a bright shade of green hidden behind rectangular glasses.

"Where the hell were you?" Mustang asked the newcomer.

"I thought it best to lay low."

Mustang snapped. "You didn't think about _maybe BACKING US UP?!" _

I shrugged. "So he didn't want to die. I don't blame the man, you guys are one big freak show."

Edward finally snapped out of his daze. Straightening up, he ran towards what remained of his brother. "Al!"

Leaving the upcoming chewing out for Alphonse, I turned back towards the conversation beside me.

"Speaking of death," Mustang turned towards me. _Oh crap. _"What did you mean before when you said you had died before?"

I furrowed my brows and crossed my arms. "I already told you that. Or have you forgotten already, wrinkles?"

"I am NOT wrinkly!" He shouted. Then he forced his eyes closed and let out a drawn breath. "Would you care to explain it to me a little better now?"

I sighed. I wasn't getting out of this one, especially since I had used it on Edward… "Fine, but only if you explain Ishvalans to me, and only after we can gather everyone together. I feel like they should know this, too."

.oOo.

"As most of you know," Jack began his explanation, "I came here quite suddenly a week ago. Actually, I arrived in this very room.

"Before that, I had been crossing a street. Not paying attention, I was run over by some vehicle or other and died." He held up a hand to stop the questions that everyone wanted to ask.

"Next thing I knew, I was—" he cut off suddenly with a jump. He angled his head slightly to the side, almost as if listening to something, then frowned. After a moment he regained himself. "Right, sorry. Next thing I knew I was talking to some divine stalker dude. He explained to me that I had died too early, so to keep the balance he had to give me something back. That something," he paused dramatically, "was another chance at life, and a task. I had to 'find Edward Elric' and 'save them'." He grinned cheekily. "But you already knew that. Next thing I knew, I was handcuffed to this very couch, and the story you already know began."

Hughes frowned. "Is that even possible?"

Jack snorted. "Clearly it is, or I wouldn't be here."

"But—"

"Save it." He held up a hand. "I'm done with my story. Now, I believe Mustang has some Ishy people explaining to do." He looked pointedly at the dark haired man.

Roy nodded, though he didn't appear to be pleased with the situation. "The Ishvalans were a race of people who lived in the East. They believed in the one creator and god, Ishvala. Because of the drastic differences in beliefs, there was a constant state of conflict. Then, 13 years ago, a soldier accidentally shot and killed an Ishvalan child. The result was immediate. A civil war broke out, eventually spanning over the entire east area. After several years of this, the Fuhrer had had enough. He sent out the State Alchemists, giving the order to exterminate Ishval. And we did." Mustang looked up from his hands. "In a way, Scar's revenge is justified."

Edward growled, slapping a fist on the table. "No, it isn't! He's using the name of his 'god' to justify murder! I won't just sit by and let that happen!"

"then what are you gonna do, Ed?" Havoc questioned. "Without an arm, you won't stand a chance against Scar."

Sighing, Edward answered. "I guess there's no other choice then." He grinned. "It's been a long time, but it looks like I'm going to have to visit my mechanic!"

.oOo.

"God has given us a great trial, my children! Wicked heathens have spread insidious rumors trying to shake our faith!" Father Cornello cried to the crowd, arms raised high above his head. "And now the military seeks to oppress us! But we must hold tight to our faith! The time has come for us to rise up, weapon in hand, and fight for the great god LETO!"

"Yeah! We fight under the protection of Leto! Down with heathens and heresy!"

"No! Don't be fooled!"

"That man speaks nothing but lies! Can't you see that?!"

"Hold your tongue!"

"We aren't pawns of the heathens like all of _you _are!"

Watching the scene unfold from up above, a very busty young woman with dark, wavy locks and lips like blood laughed. "Human foolishness never ceases to amaze me!"

Down below, a riot had broken out. Windows were shattered, men were beating each other half to death with fists and clubs. Women were dragged into dark corners by their hair and children sat alone, wailing and waiting for it all to stop. But it didn't.

"Wouldn't you agree, Gluttony?"

A high, childish voice responded. "Fools! All of them!"

"Fools indeed, sad but true." Father Cornello agreed, climbing the steps to join the pair.

"Well, well," the woman smiled "if it isn't the father."

"Yeah, Father!" Gluttony chirped, flab swaying.

"Sorry to have to put you to all this trouble." She purred.

Cornello grinned. "As soon as we have everything settled here, I have my own responsibilities I need to get back to."

The night beauty smirked and turned to face the uproar again. "The Fullmetal boy's interference was irritating, but at least we were able to make it work in our favor. Looks like we'll finish up ahead of schedule."

"Manipulate a little information, spout a little redirect to the 'believers', and you have a fine recipe for instant violence. Humans are such _simple _creatures."

"Bloodshed gives way to bloodshed, hatred breeds more hatred before all of the violence soaks into the land, carving rivers of blood. And no matter how many times it happens, they never learn. The human race is made up of violent, miserable fools."

"Who seem more than willing to play into our hands." She smiled in agreement.

Gluttony was peering over the edge of the tower. "Are lots of people gonna die again?"

"Yes, they will." The woman responded with glee.

The stout man grinned in excitement. "OOH! Can I eat all of them after they die?"

"No, you may not." The woman's tone changed to one of gentle reprimand as she placed a gloved hand on his hairless head. She switched her focus to Father Cornello. "By the way, Envy, could you lose the old man costume? It's rather unattractive."

"Come on, I was just staying in character!" There was a flash of red light, and the balding man began to change from the friendly priest, starting at the feet and moving up. "But, if you insist, this time I'll go with a younger, cuter model! What do ya say?" Envy had changed garments into a black, tight fitting top and skort combo. He had slimmed into the body of someone in their upper teens, and had long black hair vaguely reminiscent of a palm tree.

A man behind them gasped in shock. "A-a-a-a mo-monster!" He stuttered. It was one of Father Cornello's followers. "W-what's going on here? What have you done? What have you done with the real Father Cornello?"

The woman smiled at Envy. "It's your call."

"He said I was a monster! I think that's quite rude, don't you?" Envy responded nonchalantly.

"Can I eat him? Can I?" Gluttony popped up. The two turned to him in mild surprise, but before they could say anything he had already lunged.

Envy leaned against the railing. "Oh hey, 'd'you hear the news? Shou Tucker, that alchemist in Central? Arrested for creating a chimera out of humans and attempting it again. He's been sentenced to death."

"Tucker?" The woman replied, clearly bored. "Why should we care about a little nothing like him?"

"Because it dragged _him _out into the open."

The woman bit her lip, then looked at the mess Gluttony was creating in the corner. "Speaking of Central, isn't that where the Flame Colonel is staying right now?"

"Yeah. And apparently the Fullmetal Brat's there, too."

"Oh, is he?" She replied in surprise. Then her gaze narrowed. "As _furious _as I am that he interfered with our work here, we can't very well let him die. He's a very important sacrifice, after all."

"OOH, THAT WAS SO YUMMY!" Glutton cried with glee, having finished his 'meal'.

"We'll find some way of handling the situation." She continued. "The other one you were speaking of, what was his name?"

"They call him Scar, for his disfigured face." Envy grinned.

"Yes." She purred. "We'll have to see what we can do about _him _as well."

**Oh crap has it been a month? Sorry about that, most of that time was me making up work for the weeks I was out with that concussion (all better now, thanks for the support!) but a lot of it was me being lazy and HATING this episode. But, taking into account a comment that I got stating that the last chapter's action scene was a bit rushed, I padded this one up a lot, and I have to say I'm very pleased with the result. **

**Looking back, some of Jack's concussion stuff is off. I wrote that before I actually got the concussion, and was too lazy to fix it. No worries though, everything will be explained in due time. I'm actually kinda excited for when I finally finish this and get to go back and rewrite it all better. **

**There was something I put in earlier about it being Monday in the story. I just wanna say that yes, it really is Monday. Assuming that Jack died on a Monday morning, he spent the rest of Monday at the Colonel's office. Monday night/Tuesday morning was the train to Liore. Tuesday was Liore, and they spent most of Wednesday on the train to Youswell. Wednesday night/Thursday morning was that whole scheme. They spent the rest of Thursday chillin and then left that night, which put Friday on the train back and Saturday as the first day with the Tuckers. Sunday night was the Nina incident, making Monday the day of the here and now. **

**Thank you all for reviewing, I shall hopefully see you in less than a month this time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Are disclaimers a necessary part of fanfictions? Because I find the idea rather redundant. There should be claimers for OCs and all the AU stuff, but otherwise can't we just assume that it wasn't ours?**

**Summary: Jack and the Elric brothers have done everything up to the Scar fiasco. Which means that Ed's arm is broken, and he naturally has to go visit his mechanic. But first…**

.oOo.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Jack glanced over his shoulder at the group standing beside him. Ed was clutching his sleeve, and Major Armstrong was hefting Alphonse's remains in a crate on his shoulder. They were about to enter Central's orphanage, to visit a certain little girl.

"Why wouldn't I?" Ed questioned with a frown.

"It's just…" Jack hesitated, then shook his head. "Nothing. Nevermind."

They opened the door, entering the dank building. It seemed pleasant enough, with floral curtains and hard wood floors. A staircase hugged the left wall and lead to a narrow hallway, where a small face with big blue eyes could be seen peering around the corner. Suddenly, the face broke into an enormous grin, and the child came running down the stairs.

"Big brother!" Nina cried as she launched herself onto a slightly unsuspecting Jack. His eyes widened as he caught her, then he readjusted her to his hip and matched her smile.

"Hey there Nina," he bounced her up and down a bit, causing her braids to fly as she squealed. "How've you been?"

"Good!" She noticed Edward, standing a few feet off. With a slight frown and a tilt of her head, Nina asked "Where did Big Brother Edward's arm go?"

Edward blinked, then rubbed his shoulder and put on a reassuring smile. "It got broken, so I'm going to go and get a new one soon. I'll show you once it's fixed, okay?"

" 'Kay!" Nina grinned and repositioned herself to carry on a conversation with Jack, who was surprisingly good at handling the child. Ed smiled to himself, looking at the two of them interact. It was almost like they actually were siblings, the way they playfully bantered with one another. _She has a real chance at life now, _he thought to himself, _I hope she can make the best of it._

.oOo.

There was a tap on the window. "Hey!"

I blinked and looked over my shoulder at the man saluting the glass. It was the dark haired guy with the glasses from yesterday. Holmes or something.

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes?" Ed asked. Eh, I was close. "What are you doing here?"

"Everyone down at the office was busy, so it's just me to see you off." He grinned, glasses flashing and green eyes twinkling.

Ed smiled back. "Great. But can you tell me why the Major" he shot a disgruntled look at the bald man beside him "is accompanying us?"

In all honesty, I was a little lost on this one as well. The Major, whose name was ALEX LOIUS ARMSTRONG A NAME THAT MUST BE YELLED SO THAT PEOPLE GENERATIONS FROM NOW CAN STILL HEAR IT RINGING IN THEIR EARS (as mine continue to _bleed)_, was sitting quietly on the bench opposite me reading a small brown book. He was imposing enough, reaching around seven feet tall, but I had witnessed his… sparkles. Needless to say, I was utterly confused when it came to this guy.

"For protection." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You don't have any way of defending yourself until you get your arm back."

I snorted, causing Sparta to stir on my lap. "Well gee, thanks. What am I, chopped liver?"

Hughes blinked, as if noticing that I was sitting _right there. _"Oh yeah, you."

"Yes. Me."

The train whistle blew, signaling our departure. "Probably because you're not military, and we don't know if we can trust you." Hughes straightened up and popped a salute. "Give me a shout next time you're in Central!"

Ed and Armstrong were saluting back. Not sure if I was supposed to return the gesture or not, considering I wasn't a part of the military, I grabbed Sparta and hoisted her up in a kind of cat-wave-thing. She was most displeased with this turn of events.

Eyeing me from his seat beside Armstrong, Edward shook his head. "You're a strange one…"

I smirked. "You don't even know the half of it."

We sat like that for a while, Ed staring out the window, Armstrong reading his book, and me stroking Sparta's fur, letting my mind wander. Eventually, something occurred to me. "Wait… so you guys just accept my story?"

Ed blinked. "Huh?"

"What I said last night," I continued, "about dying and getting another chance at life. You believed me?"

He snorted. "Not for a minute. From what I've seen, that thing you've been calling 'God' isn't that generous. In fact, that's what I've been trying to figure out."

I grinned. "Great minds think alike."

"Don't flatter yourself," he retorted. "I'm doing my job. You're frolicking around in La-La-Land."

"You'd be surprised what you can learn in La-La-Land." I muttered under my breath. Speaking of which… "Does that mean you haven't tackled Ishval yet?"

Edward blinked, and Armstrong finally looked up from his book. "What?"

"Did you figure out Ishval yet, or do you just love me so much that I'm all you can think about?" I continued. Sparta purred in my lap.

Edward frowned. "There's nothing to figure out…"

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh _really? _Then please, do explain to me how a trained soldier 'accidentally' shoots a child. When tensions are already tight, I might add."

Armstrong stiffened noticeably. "Are you suggesting—"

"That's exactly what I'm suggesting." I finished for him. "Well, either that, or there's an evil third party that we don't know about yet, but I find that unlikely."

Edward stared at me for a minute, then shook his head in exasperation. "Ugh, whatever. I can't think about this anymore."

"Alright then!" I readjusted in my seat, then began scanning the train. "I spy with my little eye…"

.oOo.

We had left the Central area and passed another important place called East City hours ago, and frankly, I was getting bored. Ed was staring out the window in thought, as he had been for the past few hours, and Armstrong was reading _another _book (this one was blue) as he had been for the past few hours. And I was sitting, petting Sparta, and staring absently into space, as I had been _for the past few hours. _

It is a little known fact that _I do not handle boredom well. _And so I did what anyone would do in such a situation. I tried as best as I could to get that mysterious girl in my head to talk to me. Which meant shouting at the top of my lungs within my skull.

_HEEEEYY HEY HEY HEY YOU HEY YOU YEAH THAT GIRL GIRLY GIIIIRRLLLLYYYYYY GIRLY GIRLY GIRLY GIRLY HEY GIRLY WHERE ARE YOU GIRLY ARE YOU THERE GIRLY YOU WERE TOTALLY HERE YESTERDAY GIRLY DID YOU LEAVE MY HEAD GIRLY OR ARE YOU STILL THERE OR WHAT BECAUSE I'M BORED AND I WANNA TALK TO YOU HEY HEY GIRLY GIRLY GIRLY GIR—_

**WILL you PLEASE just shut the HELL UP?!**__She finally yelled back_. _Ah, the sweet taste of victory. **I can hear you PERFECTLY FINE if you think that you're talking to me. Especially when you're feeling a strong emotion, such as BOREDOM. Now WHAT IS IT THAT YOU WANT?**

_I'm bored. _I said, rather unnecessarily. _Could you explain some stuff to me?_

**That completely depends on the questions you ask. **I couldn't exactly tell, but did she sound… _teasing?_

_That's cool. _Sparta shifted in my lap. _So can you explain the… empathy link thingy to me? Like, how it got here and how it works and such?_

**Moron. **She muttered, though it didn't actually get any quieter. **I JUST explained to you that I could hear you if you think that you're talking to me, and if you're feeling a strong emotion. As for how I established the link, I'm afraid that's a secret of the trade. **

I scowled to myself. _Right. Trade secret. So I can't just go establishing these empathy links with anyone?_

**You can't, no. I could theoretically go sticking peoples' minds together, but that takes so much effort… It's not gonna happen. Sorry, bud, you're out of luck.**

_Why can you do that, but I can't?_

**Because I'm awesome.**

…_What? What do you mean 'because I'm awesome'?_

**That's just it! I'm. Freaking. Awesome!**

_Uh huh. So, does Miss Awesome have a name, or should I just keep making up bad nicknames?_

She gasped dramatically. **Oh, how rude of me! Allow me to introduce myself: I am known as ****Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gombigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser the Third. Don't hesitate to call. **

I blinked. _No way in hell. I think I got Blue and Kaiser the Third. And I'm not calling you either of those. What do you want me to call you?_

**I am ****Percival Ramsey Gregory Nikolai Jacques Gozer Leonardo Gabriel Socrates Ming****Victor Nostradamus Alistair Perdita Vladimir Steve Rasputin Boromir Walla-walla Shedia Alexander Oliver Avalar Ernesto Zippyzappy Angeleyes.**

_Should I even try that one?_

**My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.**

_These are all from movies?_

**And TV shows. Hello, I'm the Doctor.**

_Does this mean I have to guess your name?_

And then she started SINGING. **Today I brew, tomorrow I bake, And then the kitten Sparta I'll take. He does not know, that Jack so lame, That Rumpelstiltzkin is my name!**

_Well now that's just mean. So I have to guess your name? And if I don't, you'll take my cat?_

**My cat, actually. And no, not yet anyways, I just needed something to sing in my song. But yes, that is the best way to entertain you for the time being.**

_Sounds like fun. So… Alyssa?_

**Nope.**

_Jennifer?_

**No.**

_Lauren?_

**Nu uh. Lean to the left quickly.**

I leaned to the left instinctually, and was immediately glad that I had. Armstrong had just jumped up and placed a hand right where my head had just been to steady himself. Edward, who hadn't had the warning, wasn't as lucky and got squished against the window.

"Doctor Marcoh!" He shouted out the open window at a stocky old man who had just walked past the train. He had dark hair that was graying by the ears and a tan coat. "Doctor Marcoh, it's me! Alex Louis Armstrong from Central!"

The old dude turned around slowly, his expression frozen in that 'oh crap I'm so gonna die any second now' face from just about any scary movie. He caught sight of Amstrong, a rather terrifying sight indeed, and bolted away as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Smart man." I muttered under my breath as Armstrong sat back down and Ed peeled his face from the wall.

Rubbing his face, Ed glared at the Major. "Friend of yours?"

He nodded his head. "Doctor Marcoh was a revolutionary scientist during the war in Ishval. Unfortunately, he deserted the front part way through, and hasn't been seen since."

Ed paused as if in thought for a moment, then shot up and bolted out of the train. Sighing, I placed Sparta on my head and ran to catch up with him. Armstrong went into the back to grab Alphonse, who had been crated with the livestock ("I thought he might get lonely!" Armstrong explained) and then stepped out onto the platform with us.

.oOo.

They made quite a sight for the townspeople. A giant of a man lugging a crate of destroyed armor and showing a drawing of an aging man, followed by a one armed adolescent in a rather vibrant red coat and another adolescent balancing a cat on his head while seeming lost in thought. If it weren't for the speed with which they travelled through town, several people would have requested a performance.

Their speed was well rewarded, though, for soon enough they had arrived at the humble dwelling of a Doctor Mauro, the man who bore a striking resemblance to the one Major Armstrong had drawn up. The house was built for two residents, Mauro owning the upper of the establishments. An empty flower box hung above a flight of concrete stairs, leading to a plain brown doorway. Just another invisible dwelling in a small town of invisible people.

They mounted the steps and knocked twice on the oak. The door immediately opened, followed by a gun of some kind and a shot through the air. Edward had to leap to the side to avoid a fatal injury.

"Who are you?!" the doctor cried, brandishing his pistol like it was the last possession he had. "Have you come to take me back to Central? Because I won't hear of it!"

Armstrong raised his free hand in what was supposed to be a friendly gesture. "Doctor Marcoh, please calm down, we would just like to spea—"

"I won't let you have me!"

Jack chose that moment to step forward. Actually, scratch that, he chose that moment to step _past _Doctor Marcoh and seat himself at one of the four wooden chairs surrounding a similar wooden table. He clasped his hands in front of himself and looked pointedly at the entourage gaping in the doorway.

"Well?" he raised his eyebrows. "The man invited us in, didn't he?"

Amrstrong looked like he wanted to hurl Alphonse at him, and Edward was torn between being shocked by the kids audacity and trying not to laugh at the kids usual audacity. Doctor Marcoh was spluttering, his weapon momentarily forgotten. "Why, young man, I did no such—"

"Shut the front door and sit you ass down, now." His glare was frosty and intense, like a raging fire of ice. Marcoh simply gulped, then followed his lead and sat himself down at the table. Ed and Major Armstrong closed the door behind them before situating Alphonse and seating themselves as well.

"Now that that's taken care of," Jack smiled like nothing had gone down. _Why, that little… _"I believe that there were some thing that needed discussing."

Seeing that these people weren't going to leave until they were pleased, Doctor Marcoh heaved a great sigh. "Well then, I suppose I should start at the beginning…"

And start he did. Marcoh explained that he was a state alchemist known as the Crystal Alchemist and a researcher during the Civil War in Ishval. He made horrible weapons for the military that caused such a high death toll he couldn't bear it, so he left. In an attempt to clean his hands of the accumulated blood from the war, he used the materials he stole from his research and became a doctor for this small town.

"That's so very kind of you." Armstrong sniffled, wiping tears from his eyes with a surprisingly masculine handkerchief. Edward nodded his agreement., though he was still frowning.

"What weapon could you have been researching that was so bad?" the golden haired lad asked. There was a gleam in his eyes that said he already knew the answer, though.

Marcoh closed his eyes as if in pain. "The Philosopher's Stone."

The reaction was instantaneous. Amstrong sat up straighter, Alphonse let out a small gasp, and Edward leaped straight out of his chair. Even Jack looked interested in the conversation now (he had been very nearly dozing off for a while now).

"You mean you have it?" Ed cried with glee. "The real Philosopher's Stone?"

Marcoh reached a hand into the breast pocket of his coat, then pulled out a vial of liquid a hint lighter than blood. Edward froze in confusion. "That's it? But… it's a liquid!"

"Just as the Philosopher's Stone known by many names, so it can come in many forms." Marcoh explained quietly. "It is not limited to a physical stone."

Edward seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, then he slammed his hand down onto the table with determination. "Please, I need access to all of your research notes on the Philosopher's Stone!"

Marcoh almost fell out of his chair. With trembling hands, he steadied himself. "Major Armstrong, who is this child?"

Armstrong narrowed his eyes at the man. "This boy is a state alchemist."

The doctor seemed to stop altogether at that. Then he clutched his head in his hands. "Even children now." He muttered to himself. "When will they learn?"

He raised his head to face the determined teen before him. "Do you have any idea of the mistake you've made? The Amestrian military will—"

"I know the choice I've made!" Edward snapped. "But no matter how poor of a decision it may seem, it's a decision I have to make! We need the Stone to set things right, to get our bodies back!"

Marcoh frowned. "Your bodies…" Then his eyes drifted to the crate of armor bits beside him and the empty sleeve of Ed's red coat. The dark orbs widened in realization. "You did it, didn't you? The ultimate taboo." He walked over to Alphonse slowly and removed his helmet, as if knowing that that was where his blood seal was. "To have been able to transmute a specific person's soul, and at such a young age…"

He walked back to his seat and lowered himself slowly, as only an aged man can. "As talented as you may be… I cannot let you get your hands on those research notes."

"Why not?!" Edward's demeanor had changed from gleeful determination to subdued anger.

Marcoh looked away, as if ashamed by his mere knowledge of the object. "I won't let anyone else dirty themselves with that _thing. _It is the research of the devil, and following it will only put you through hell."

Jack's eyes widened slightly in understanding, but Edward was too busy being indignant to notice. "I'VE _ALREADY _BEEN THROUGH HELL!" He shouted angrily, waving his arm in a wide arc. He glared at the occupants of the room in turn, then left the building in a huff, slamming the door behind him. Major Armstrong shot a worried look at the door, then seemed to decide it was best to leave for now.

"Thank you for hosting us, doctor, it's been a pleasure." With a slight bow of his head, the mountain of a man grabbed Alphonse's crate and followed after him, leaving Doctor Marcoh alone with the dark haired youth and his cat.

.oOo.

Fixing my gaze upon Marcoh, I removed Sparta from my head. _Well, here goes nothing… _"It's human life, isn't it?"

That seemed to be the last straw for the aged man. He finally fell out of his chair, looking at me with bulging eyes. "How… how could you possibly _know _that?"

I shrugged. "You said it was the devil's research. Human experimentation is usually where people draw the line when it comes to science."

Struggling to his feet, Marcoh regained his posture. "I assume you're going to go tell that boy now, perhaps crush his hopes while they're still fresh?"

**Don't tell them. **My little cranium crony piped up from the recesses of my skull.

_Eavesdropper._

**But seriously, don't. **She insisted. **This is something that they have to discover on their own.**

"Young man?" Marcoh interrupted my silence.

"Give me a minute." I refocused my attention again. _Why shouldn't I help them? According to Truth, I'm supposed to 'save them'. Isn't helping them now going to save them later?_

**No, it's not. If you tell them now, then they'll never find the truth hidden within the truth.**

I scowled. _You're damn confusing, you know that?_

**And proud of it.**

Heaving a sigh, I continued. _If I agree not to tell them, what do I get in return?_

**Internet access.**

…_Say what?_

**I will give you access to the internet through your phone if you don't tell them about the Stone.**

_You can do that?_

**I wouldn't offer it if I couldn't.**

_And what happens when my phone dies? The damn thing is almost out of battery!_

**If you continue to heed my advice on the important stuff like this, I will keep your phone charged as well.**

I grinned. _Deal._

I returned my attention to Doctor Marcoh, who was looking at me with worry. "I won't tell them about the stone. But know that they'll probably figure it out on their own, even without my help."

Marcoh nodded in solemn thought. Then, apparently deciding on something, he grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled something down. "Here, this is for them." He handed the folded piece of paper over to me. "Maybe they're smart enough to find the truth hidden within the truths."

Smiling at the coincidental choice of wording, I took the paper and shook his hand. "Thank you very much, doctor."

I rose from my seat and held Sparta close, giving a final wave before closing the door behind me. On the way back, I passed a dark haired beauty who even I knew was way out of my league. But that doesn't stop a man from trying.

I slapped her shapely behind as I passed. "Keep flaunting it while you still got it!" I called back over my shoulder. She smiled back at me knowingly, and I knew that I had made a lasting impression on her. They don't always smile back.

.oOo.

Edward had calmed significantly by the time I made it back to the station. He was just telling Armstrong how even discovering that the Stone could be made was a lead for him when I shoved the paper in his face. "Read it and weep!" I grinned with my success.

His eyes quickly scanned over the page before looking back at me, incredulous. "How did you get him to tell you where it was?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets." I winked impishly, still grinning. "He also said that you would be smart enough to discover 'the truth hidden beneath the truth' or within the truth or whatever, point is, there's more to it than first meets the eye." I struck a rather convincing pose. "How awesome am I?"

Grinning, Ed clapped my on the shoulder. "You're the best job ever, Jack!"

Within my head, not-Stephanie groaned. **Please don't inflate his ego anymore…**

I laughed with them, realizing that I had finally made peace with the other Elric.

.oOo.

Ed insisted that Alphonse sit with them for the rest of the trip to Risembool. It was only once the train cart was empty enough that Al dared to speak. "Brother, what did the note from Doctor Marcoh say?"

"National Central Library, First Branch." Ed smiled to himself with satisfaction.

Major Armstrong nodded in understanding. "Like hiding a tree in a forest…"

"Exactly." Ed smiled at Jack, who seemed to be very interested in that little rectangle thing again. Frowning, he leaned forward and snatched it from his hands.

Jack started. "Hey! I was using that!"

Waving it teasingly, Ed shook his head. "You said you would explain to me what it was once you weren't sitting on it anymore. It's in my hand now, so you have to tell me what it is before you can use it again!"

Crossing his arms, Jack looked pointedly out the window. "It's technology from my country."

Ed frowned, looking at the rectangle in his hand. Well, it was actually shaped a bit more like a square now, since it had some sliding contraption that made it open. The top portion was some sort of polymer with a lot of words on it, surrounded by a similar dark blue polymer that seemed to be there just to keep everything contained. The bottom section had all the letters in the alphabet arranged in a way that he didn't recognize. He pushed one of the letters warily, and that letter appeared near the top of the words part of the rectangle.

His eyes widened. "That's amazing! The center part changes depending on which keys you press! How does it work?"

Jack shrugged. "Some electrical thingamajig. I can write stuff down with that and look at it later, like a compact notebook." He extended a hand expectantly. "Can I have it back now?"

Ed pouted. "What, I can't explore it? This thing is absolutely fantastic! Where did you say you were from again?"

"America. Give it here."

"But it's the most advanced thing I've ever seen! How could we not know about this?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You've never even heard of America, what makes you think you'd know about our technology? Give. "

"But—"

"No."

"Can I just—"

"Maybe later. If you give it to me."

Sighing, Ed handed the rectangle back. "Don't let Winry get her hands on that. She'll take it apart and put it together as something else altogether."

Jack paused. "Who?"

"My mechanic."

"Ah."

.oOo.

_Scrape._

_Scrape._

_Scrape._

The file moved steadily, back and forth in her hands against the double wrench. It was important to take care of her tools, keeping them sharp and in pristine condition.

_Scrape. _

_Scrape. _

_Scrape._

_Scrape._

"Winry!" Granny's voice called from outside. "Our best customers are here!"

Winry looked over her shoulder towards the porch. Sure enough, she could already hear Edward shouting about how short he wasn't. Sighing, she grabbed another wrench and tied her jumper around her waist.

The wrench flew from her hand with perfect precision, silencing the argument. "Winry!" Ed whined from the ground, pulling himself into a sitting position.

She put her hands on the railing. "I thought I told you to call before you came back for maintenance!"

Edward growled in annoyance, but given his position, it looked more pathetic than terrifying. It was such a typical pose to see him in that she just laughed. "Welcome back!"

"Yeah…"

The group picked themselves up and move to the sitting room, where Edward handed over his arm. Or, more accurately, what was _left _of his arm.

"OH NO!" Winry cried, holding bits of wire and steel in her trembling hands.

Ed was sitting on the couch, sipping the mug Granny had grabbed for him. "Yeah… it's a little smashed up."

"A little smashed up? It's been a week since you last stopped by, Edward, and I can fit the biggest piece in a single hand! I _slaved _over this arm!" Her masterpiece was in master_pieces_, and he was saying it was 'a little smashed up'?

"It's basically the same, just in smaller pieces!"

_Pow!_

Winry's fist hurled into his cheek, quite possibly loosening teeth. She put her hands on her hips and looked over at Al, who was sitting in a crate that shouldn't have been able to fit the entire suit of armor. "Let me guess, you 'a little smashed up' too, Al? Just what kind of trouble do you guys get into?"

There was a snort from the other end of the couch. "Tell me about it."

Winry looked over at the newcomer for the first time. He had dark brown hair and tanned skin, as well as a faded red shirt. But even from this distance, she could tell that his eyes were his best feature. They were a pale, pale gray blue, maybe even silver.

She extended a gloved hand to him. "Hello there, I'm afraid we haven't been properly introduced. I'm

Winry Rockbell."

"Jack Ryenn." He took her hand and shook it in a firm grip.

Winry smiled at him. "I like your eyes."

"I like your boobs."

…_did he just? OH MY GOD HE DID THAT PERV! _Winry's wrench connected with his temple just as Edward's automail leg kicked his… yeah.

"Jack!" He shouted. "What the hell?!"

But Jack was unconscious, clearly not having as thick a skull as Edward did. Served him right, the no good little…

.oOo.

"Yo."

Something was poking my head. Repeatedly. Like Chinese water torture, but without the water.

"Yo. Hey. You. Buddy. Friend. Amigo. Compadre. Partner. Captain. Mister. Meister. Magician. Mage. Muppet. WAKE THE HELL UP ALREADY!"

_That _got me up. I snapped upright, smacking my forehead against something unforgiving.

"OOOWWWWW YOU ASS I SAID _WAKE _UP, NOT _SIT _UP!" Not-Brittany was clutching her forehead in a similar manner to myself. Which was weird, because I had never actually seen her before, but I knew that voice _very well _now.

"Then don't startle me." I grumbled. "How come I can see you? And where am I?"

She stood up with a flourish, bracelet jingling and dress swooshing. "This is the supernatural equivalent of" she raised her fingers in air quotes "'the me cave', AKA my place. You touch anything and you die."

I stood up slowly, taking in my surroundings. It was similar to the portal of truth with that whole never-ending abyss, except the surrounding area here was a light purple. It was pretty sparsely furnished as well, only having a piano, a piano bench, a side table, and… was that a… throne? There was also a large mirror that reminded me quite a bit of the mirror of Erised from Harry Potter, and a single white door.

And then I got a good look at my companion. She was significantly shorter than me (but still probably taller than Ed), with big green eyes and strawberry blonde shoulder length hair. She didn't wear shoes, but she did have a silver bracelet on her left wrist and a plain white dress.

"So…" I began slowly, not sure what I was doing here.

"Os." She replied.

I raised an eyebrow. "…what?"

"You never finished your sentence." She shrugged. "I thought saying the reverse of what you said might help, as a bit of a conversation starter."

"…no. So you never explained to me why I'm here."

She winked. "You never asked. But anyways, you're really just here for introductions."

I grinned. "Great! Then I get to know your name?"

"Nope!"

"I hate you."

The girl grinned, showing very nice white teeth. "But you love it."

"Yeah, yeah, sure I do." I grumbled to myself. "Seriously though, what's the point of introductions if I don't get to know your name?"

She gasped dramatically, slapping her palms to her cheeks. "Why, to see my amazing dwelling of course!"

"And you couldn't have showed me this before?"

"Nope. I can only show you stuff when you're not awake. Be that unconscious, as you are now, or dreaming, it doesn't matter."

_This chick is by far the most annoying vague girl version of Yoda I've ever seen. _"And _why, _pray tell, doesn't it matter?"

"Because you," she flicked my forehead, sending my backward several feet, "are about to wake up."

That flick had all the force of a dragon. It actually made everything significantly darker. Then I realized that it was actually me fading into the darkness.

"Oh, and before you go," she appeared above me. _When did I lie down? _"Don't even try to make another move on Winry. Edward will kill you. Toodles!" She wagged her fingers teasingly.

I sighed. _This chick…_

.oOo.

It was an entire day before Jack woke up. Apparently, he had learned his lesson, because he didn't try to do anything funny again the entire time they were there. He spent the remainder of the few days in Risembool exploring outside, sitting with the brothers or playing with his cat. He watched with fascination as Ed reattached his new prosthetics, and then again as he transmuted Al into an entire suit of armor again.

It was when the Elrics were sparring that Jack finally made a significant comment. "You guys are like… medieval ninjas."

It was such a strange comment that Edward didn't dodge quite far enough to the left and got clipped in the gut. Grunting, he glared at Jack. "Why do you interject at the most inconvenient moments?"

Jack shrugged. "I have to speak when no one else is or I'm not heard."

"Right…" The two went back to fighting, and Jack continued to watch intently. Neither brother were paying him enough attention to note the gleam in his eyes.

.oOo.

"Come back soon." Winry waved tiredly from her room. Edward scratched his head before waving back as he walked away. We were a decent enough distance from the house when I started poking fun.

"Edward and Winry, sittin' in a tree."

The blonde yelped and turned to face me, face red. "No way! She's just my mechanic!"

I grinned, and Alphonse laughed knowingly, his voice echoing. "K-I-S-S-I-Nnnnnnrmph!"

Edward punched me in the gut quickly, knocking me back a step. I coughed into my fist a few times before glaring at him. "Oh, you are so asking for it!"

Even Armstrong laughed as we chased each other all the way to the train station, Alphonse following behind us in a vain attempt to spare us of bloodshed.

.oOo.

The two of them sat, staring through the mirror at a young girl with twin braids.

"She's on you now, you know," Truth stated emotionlessly.

The girl groaned. "Don't remind me." She rubbed her temples in frustration, the small circles digging into her skull. "What I don't get it why you're making me take care of the way he changed it, even though the entire point of sending him there was to change things up!"

"It's because she was always a fixed point." He motioned towards the smiling, cheerful girl. "Leaving her as she is now will tear a serious hole in the fabric of reality. How did you phrase it before? Ah yes, 'Time cannot be rewritten'. Something needs to happen here, or everything will fall apart at the seams."

"But why does it have to be her?" she snapped back at him. "I wouldn't have a problem with it if it were somebody bad like Kimblee or Bradley or something, but Ed just got over this! Can't I do something else?"

But Truth had already left.

**Hahaha wow, that was close! I almost came to a full month without updating, but I just made it!**

**I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit of a letdown, you guys were all so eager to see how Jack would interact with Winry, and I totally skirted around anything big. This chapter's just been a big pain in the rear since I started writing it. Hopefully the next one will be better… And sooner…**

**Ah yeah, about that: I've got AP exams like next week, as well as tryouts. Don't worry, it's just a quick mini-break from writing, but I still will not be writing this week or next. Hopefully it won't hinder that next update too too much…**

**VIRTUAL COOKIES IF YOU CAN NAME ALL THE REFERENCES IN THIS CHAPTER! Especially when Mystery Girl is listing off her names. That was fun to write. Oh, and I totally have no clue what her name is gonna be, so I'd be glad to listen to any suggestions! **

**SEE YA SOON, THANKS FOR BEING THERE, I LOVE YOU ALL! **


	10. Chapter 10

**So… this is REALLY late. For those of you who care: I get my AP scores tomorrow and tryouts went well. Now, you guys really need a summary here…**

**Summary: Jack and the brothers have gone to Winry and Ed got fit with his new automail. There was also a suspicious little conversation between Mystery Girl and Truth at the very end of that chapter, which hinted at some dark voodoo stuffs happening with Nina. OOH SCARY! Now, it's off the the first branch of the library!**

.oOo.

"IT'S ALL GOOONEEE!" Ed cried, clutching his hair with his gloved hands. Alphonse was in a much similar state, though he was less vocal about it. Even I had to agree that this really sucked.

The entire first branch of the National Central Library had been burned to practically nothing. Maybe a third of what used to be the front wall remained, and even that looked very much unstable. The rest of it was… mostly ashes. Ed slowly climbed into the almost-building and crouched by the charcoal remains of a book. It crumbled to nonexistence in his hand, staining his white glove a dusty black.

"There's nothing left… the research notes…" Ed mumbled to himself. I will admit, I was very much tempted to tell them the secret of the Philosopher's Stone then and there, but I had made a promise to She-Who-Has-Yet-To-Tell-Me-Her-Freaking-Name, and the internet access could be of use later.

A pair of clipped voices barked out, "Major Armstrong, reporting for duty, sir!" Our group turned around to see two military peeps saluting us. One of them was a young man who looked a bit like what I would expect Ed to look like in a few years and a haircut, except with green eyes and several more inches. The other one was a woman of about the same age, with very short dark hair and one of those beauty mark-mole-thingies below her eye. Their salutes were identical and the two of them looked equally stiff as they appraised us.

"What's this?" Major Armstrong questioned in his deep baritone.

The dude responded in that same tone, "We have been assigned as new escorts for Edward Elric, sir!"

Ed groaned. "What, more bodyguards? Come _on, _this is getting _ooold!" _he whined.

"And how is what _they're_ doing any different from what _you're_ doing?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Surely you noticed that you're in the same position with me…"

"Well yeah," he huffed, crossing his arms, "but you're secretive and interesting to be around."

I clapped my palms to my cheeks in mock surprise. "Oh, my _darling!" _I took on my British accent again, "I had _no idea _you thought of me so! Why, you could make a girl blush!"

I saw a vein in his forehead pulse in irritation. "Nope, I take it back, you're a complete waste of time." He looked back at the ruined library in despair. "And apparently, so was this… Now we're back to square one…"

The lady lowered her hand sharply and spoke. "Did you want to read something from the first branch? Second Lieutenant Maria Ross, by the way."

Ed sighed. "Yeah… but it doesn't matter now, I can't read charcoal."

Ross smiled reassuringly. "Don't give up. Maybe somebody who worked there would be able to help."

.oOo.

One trip to the Second Branch Library later, they stood at an apartment complex. Ed knocked on the door in front of him quickly.

"Hello?" Sergeant Denny Brosch called out. "Sheska? Are you home?"

Completely ignoring the lack of response from the other side of the door, Jack marched up and wrenched it open, then proceeded to walk inside.

"Jack!" Alphonse gasped. "You can't just go in, what if she isn't…" He finally noticed the mountains of books hiding every inch of the walls and towering all the way to the ceiling.

"Woah." Ed followed his charge inside, everyone else just behind him. "That is a lot of reading material."

They maneuvered through stacks of books until Alphonse noticed… a hand? "BROTHER! I THINK SOMEONE IS UNDER THAT!"

Everyone bolted towards the mountain of toppled books and began digging like their lives depended on it. Eventually, more of the body was revealed, and they discovered that the person under the pile was a young woman with short, mousy brown hair and large glasses.

She sat on the ground and panted along with the rest of her rescuers. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought I might die under there!"

Ed looked at her for a moment. "Are you Sheska?"

She nodded with a smile. "Yes, that's me. Who are you all?"

After introductions had been passed around, Jack spoke up. "So, you worked at the Central Library, right?"

"Oh yes! The library!" She clasped her hands together, smiling. "I loved that job so much! All the books there… I just love to read. In fact, it's probably the only thing I'm good at!" Her smile faltered and her hands fell. "Unfortunately, I spent more time reading than working, and ended up getting fired! It's such a shame, now I don't have the money to move my sick mother into a better hospital!"

Ed leaned forward. "While you were working there, do you remember if there were research notes by a Tim Marcoh there?"

"Let me see… Tim Marcoh…" She looked up at her dusty ceiling in thought. "That's right! I remember them because they were placed in the wrong section of the library."

"So they really were there?" He groaned in desperation. "Then that means they burned down with everything else in the library. Thanks…"

"Did you want to read his notes?"

He sighed. "Yeah… but it's too late now."

She held up her hand. "I remember everything in them, would that help at all?"

There was about three seconds of stunned silence. Then everyone exploded.

"WHAAATT?"

Sheska looked startled. "It's just the way I am! I only have to read something once and then I can remember it word-for-word!"

Jack nodded. "So you have a photographic memory."

"Y-Yes, I suppose you could call it that…" She stuttered.

Ed held up his hand suddenly. "Hang on, so you could rewrite Marcoh's notes exactly as they were?"

"It would take some time, but I'm sure I could manage it…"

He grinned. "Sheska, you're a life-saver!"

.oOo.

During the five days it took for Sheska to write everything down, the brothers and their 'bodyguards' toured Central with me. And when we weren't touring, I was trying to guess that girl's name. She had refused to drop any hints regarding the subject, and I was beginning to get a bit irked.

_Susan?_

**Nope.**

_Sam?_

**Nope.**

_Bridget?_

**Nope.**

_Bobalina?_

**Now you're just being ridiculous.**

We arrived at Sheska's apartment, knocking on the door this time before entering. Once we had breached the threshold—which sounded really badass in my head but was actually just walking through the door—Sheska revealed the multiple stacks of research notes. Or at least, that's what we thought they were going to be, until it was announced that they were "1000 easy recipes!"

Brosch picked up one stack, reading through it quickly. He then eyed Sheska in mild surprise. "What part of these looked like alchemic research notes to you?"

She lost the smile on her face. "Oh no, did I do something wrong? I just wrote them down as I remembered them…"

Ed and Al were still examining the notes with glee. "You're positive that this is exactly as they were?"

"Positive." She nodded sharply.

The midget grinned. "You're the best Sheska!" Then, seeming to think of something, he grabbed a piece of scratch paper from a pocket notebook and removed his pocket watch from the clip on his belt. Scribbling something down on the paper, he handed both articles to Ross. "Lieutenant, this is my certification. Please go down to the military offices and ask them to remove that amount from my annual research funds for Sheska's payment." Then he hefted some of the stacks of paper. "C'mon, let's get these down to the library."

The two girls opened the slip of paper as we walked out, and I very nearly had a heart attack from their screams of surprise. "Is he missing a decimal place in there somewhere?!"

Ed snickered ahead of me, meaning he knew exactly what he had given the girl. I shook my head and hefted my stack a bit higher into my arms before following them to the car.

.oOo.

If there is one thing that I absolutely hate more than anything in the world it is boredom. Always. The brothers and I spent every minute of every day in that room in the library, with Ross and Brosch standing guard outside. Not that they needed to, the only thing going on in there was the flipping of pages, the shuffling of pages, and the occasional convergence of evidence between the two of them.

This would have been fine with me (they weren't prying into my secretive life), except for the fact that I couldn't help too. I had absolutely no understanding of alchemy except for maybe a bit of basic chemistry, and I wasn't about to learn now. The first step of alchemy was understanding, which meant learning, which meant… _studying. _I do not study.

And so, I spent the entirety of the several days we spent there surfing the web and attempting to guess the name of the cranium companion. It was such a blessing when Sheska came in that I very nearly ran over there and hugged the lady.

She stood in front of their table shyly. "I just wanted to thank you for all the help you've done. With all the money you gave me, I was finally able to move my mother to a better hospital." She gave a small bow of appreciation, then smiled hopefully at the boys. "Have you had any luck cracking the code?"

Their groans of depression were enough to answer her question. Ed then returned, "have you had any luck finding another job" Her similar groan of depression was enough of an answer for them.

Just then there was a knock on the doorframe, and the porcupine haired guy with the glasses raised a hand. "Yo!"

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes!" Ed smiled. So that was his name…

He grinned at them slyly. "What gives, Ed? I thought I told you to give me a shout next time you dropped by Central!"

The blonde laughed. "Sorry, we've been kinda busy over here. How've things been on your end?"

"Not good." He groaned, "All of our case files were in the First Branch of the library, and without them working has been a real pain, you know?"

Not Katie sighed in my head. **Three. Two. One.**

Ed's eyes drifted over to Sheska. I could practically see the light bulb go off over his head. "Then have I got the person for you!" He slammed his fist down on the table and pointed in a very Uncle Sam manner.

"Well I _have _read all the case files, and I _do _remember all of them…"

Hughes grinned. "That's all I needed to hear! Miss, you're hired! We'll get you to work right away!" He grabbed her arm and began dragging her off in a manner that reminded me quite a bit of kidnapping.

Before he could leave I turned on Ed. "Can I go too?" I gave him my best puppy dog eyes. Not that those would work on him, but one can hope right?

Ed seemed to understand my boredom. Nodding, he turned to Hughes. "Keep an eye on him, alright?" Then he smiled evilly, and I almost began to regret my suggestion. "I'm sure he'd love to see your photographs!"

That seemed to be enough for Hughes, because soon enough he was 'kidnapping' me too.

.oOo.

"And this is Elysia on a tricycle! She's almost four now, look at those cheeks! Isn't she just an _angel?!" _

This had been my life for the past couple of hours. It was a welcome change after all the time I had spent doing _nothing _with the Elrics, but even I had to admit that this guy was completely insane! Where did he even _keep _all these pictures?

I smiled and nodded. "She sure is. Like she dropped straight from heaven."

"I know, right?" He gushed. "And here she is with my beautiful wife Gracia! The two of them are so perfect, I must be the luckiest man in the world! Speaking of…" he glanced over at the clock on the wall, "…I should probably be getting home soon. It's almost dinner time, and Gracia always makes the best meatloaf in the world!"

My eyes widened and my smile grew larger. "She does? I love meatloaf!" Or at least that's what I said out ld. My head was following somewhere along the track of 'home cooked meal!'.

If it were possible, Hughes grinned at me even wider as well. "Well then that settles it! You're coming over for dinner, I'm sure she'll cook enough!"

After relieving Sheska for the night and informing the Elrics of where we were headed, we made our way to the Hughes' home. It was a quaint little two-story on the outer side of the city, with small hedges lining the path and a tricycle in the yard. Hughes opened the door, calling out a surprisingly stereotypical "Honey, I'm home!"

"Daddy!" The excited voice of what could only be Elysia responded. The girl came bounding down the hall and jumped into his waiting arms, squealing with joy as he swung her around. "Daddy, your beard is itchy!" She complained while laughing away. Gracia came down the hall next and ushered us in after quick introductions. Apparently, Hughes brought home guests rather often, so my apprearance didn't faze her.

As we sat at the dinner table eating what I agreed was the _best meatloaf ever, _Elysia told us all about her day at the park today.

"And then we saw a rabbit with a big bushy tail! In a tree!" She grinned at the memory.

Gracia laughed. "Those are called squirrels, dear!" Everyone was laughing at that point, myself the hardest. Who would've thought that such a picture perfect family actually existed?

Several minutes later, Elysia was thoughtfully staring at her plate. "Hey, what's up Elysia?" I asked, poking her shoulder teasingly.

She looked up at me. "Where do babies come from?"

Everyone froze. I glanced at Hughes, hoping to convey to him that this was most certainly not my department. Gracia saved the day. "They come out of mommies' tummies silly, you knew that!"

"But how do they get there?" Or so we thought. This time I decided to step in.

"Well you see, the stork comes along carrying a teeny baby in a blanket." I flapped my arms gently like wings. "And then, he flies over your house while a mommy and daddy are sleeping and drops the baby in!"

She nodded like she understood, and we all relaxed. Then, she asked "Why do you need a daddy for a baby then?"

And suddenly the room was tense again. I smiled. "They've gotta sign a special paper for the stork, saying that they want the baby too. It's a decision that both of the parents have to make together."

Elysia smiled. "Oh, that's good!" Then she turned to Mr. and Mrs. Hughes. "Can you ask the stork for a sister for me?"

My God, this child! Before the other parent could answer, Gracia stood up. "Elysia, it's time for a tubby!" She smiled like nothing had happened and carted her child out of the room. I threw Hughes a questioning look.

"Well? _Are _you planning on any more?"

He sighed and sunk forward in his chair. "We would love to have another, but Elysia very nearly didn't make it when she was born, and that's scared Gracia to death. I don't think she can handle another close call like that…"

"You could always adopt." I suggested. "In fact, I think I know of a little girl around Elysia's age who could really use a good home environment right about now."

Hughes looked interested. "Do you now?"

I nodded, hoping I could do some good for that kid again. "Yeah, her name is Nina. Nina Tucker."

Hughes's gaze darkened. "Is she the daughter of Shou Tucker, perhaps?"

I grimaced. "Yeah, she is. She very nearly died because of alchemy that night. I think what she needs most right now is a nice, _normal _home environment and a nice, _normal _father figure." I stressed the word 'normal', using the term he himself had used during the Scar incident.

He seemed to ponder for a moment. "I'll have to bring it up with Gracia first, but I think I like your idea." He stood from the table, and I did the same. "It's getting late, I should walk you back."

"That would be much appreciated, thanks." I caught a look at the calendar hanging on the wall as we walked out and paused for a moment.

July fourth…

"Are you coming?"

"Yeah, I'm on my way!"

.oOo.

That night in bed, I stared out the window with a frown. _It's so weird not hearing fireworks on the fourth of July…_

**I could play some patriotic songs if you'd like. **The girl in my head suggested. I smiled.

_Yeah… I think that would be nice. _

She played and sang through classics like the Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America for the majority of the night. Eventually, she played her final song.

**Oh beautiful, for halcyon skies—**

_Are you sure that's right?_

**This is the original poem. I figured it would be a nice way to close. Now shut up and let me play.**

_Fine, fine. Play away._

She seemed to take a deep breath, then resumed. **Oh beautiful, for halcyon skies; for amber waves of grain. For purple mountain majesties, above the enameled plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee! 'Till souls wax fair as earth and air, and music-hearted sea!**

**Oh beautiful, for pilgrim feet Whose stern, impassioned stress A thoroughfare from freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God shed His grace on thee! 'Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought By pilgrim foot and knee!**

I began whistling quietly along with the tune, getting into the spirit a bit. It was one of my favorite holidays, after all.

**Oh beautiful, for glory-tale Of liberating strife When once or twice, for man's avail, Men lavished precious life! America! America! God shed His grace on thee! 'Till selfish gain no longer stain The banner of the free!**

Standing just beyond the doorway and out of my sight was Alphonse, helmet tilted at a thoughtful angle while he listened to my whistling.

**Oh beautiful, for patriot dream That sees beyond the years. Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed His grace on thee! 'Till nobler men keep once again Thy whiter jubilee!**

Figuring that I was done for the night, Alphonse quietly clanked away, wondering about what exactly he had just witnessed.

.oOo.

**Well, that took way longer than it should have, and was significantly shorter than it should have as well. Sorry, These 2 episodes kinda go really well together, and I absolutely HATE the way it was split in the show, so I took some liberties and moved it up a bit. The next one should be significantly longer, since that one takes up all of Lab 5, plus the rest of this episode…**

**So I believe some virtual cookies are in order. **

**Amelie Nockturne-simply mentioned that there were a lot of references. I guess that counts for something… Poin 0+ for you!**

**RoseblossomWarrior-got the Doctor Who reference. Point 1 for you!**

**Anonymous Heavy On The Anon-got the Princess Bride and Doctor Who, among with—and I quote—other stuff. Yes, you get cookies too. Point 2+ for you!**

**And… that was it actually. I was kinda hoping for a better guesser turnout, but whatever. The actual list was: Trigun, the English dubbed OVA for Fullmetal Alchemist (why didn't anyone catch that one?), the Princess Bride, Doctor Who, and this one is only sorta a reference but Rumplestiltzken. Did I spell that one right… whatever.**

**ALSO, NONE of you suggested a name for Mystery Girl. That's cool, I just wanna remind you that that's still open…**

**It comes to my attention that I am just shy of 50 reviews. WOOHOOO YEAH I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! So, whomever gets that special five-oh will get to request something for me to put in at some point. So long as it doesn't directly contrast with something I've already got set in stone for future chappies, I'll definitely put it in. **

**SEE YOU ALL BEFORE SUMMERS OUT!**


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